EH Yacht, LLC vs. Egg Harbor, LLC

The dispute first began when the Defendant--Egg Harbor, LLC--claimed the right to use the name EGG HARBOR on its yachts. The company felt that they would be able to do this due to the fact that the registered trademark user, Marine Acquisitions, Inc., terminated its operations in 1997. However, the Plaintiff--EH Yacht, LLC--claims that it had purchased both the name and trademark in 1999 from the court appointed to finish up Marine’s financial affairs; this would leave Egg Harbor with no right to use the name or trademark.

Egg Harbor’s argument in this case is that when Marine Acquisitions shut its doors, they abandoned their trademark. However, the court argues that when the company shut its doors in 1997 it did not necessarily mean that they were abandoning the trademark forever. The trademark became the property of a creditor assigned by Marine Acquisitions. It was then up to the creditor to put the trademark in the hands of the highest bidder. Consequently, the highest bidder in this case was EH Yacht, LLC.

Egg Harbor, LLC could not successfully prove that the EGG HARBOR trademark had in fact been abandoned. This resulted in the court ruling in favor of EH Yacht, LLC due to the fact that it had legally purchased the rights to the original EGG HARBOR trademark. Egg Harbor, LLC was required by court of law to eliminate both the Egg Harbor name and logo from their sales.