Grocery store chains fight over Hot August Nights trademark

RENO, Nev. - Two competing grocery store chains, Raley's and Albertson's, are embroiled in a fight over use of the "Hot August Nights" trademark to promote things like sizzling savings on sirloin steaks.

Hot August Nights Corp., organizer of the week-long classic car rally in downtown Reno, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Monday against Albertson's Food and Drug seeking $50,000 or more in damages for alleged infringement of a federally registered trademark.

Raley's Supermarkets is the only grocery store chain certified as a formal sponsor of the event, the lawsuit said.

Yet, Albertson's ran advertisements in local newspapers in August 1998 and August 1999 regarding a "Hot August Nights Sale. ... Celebrate Hot August Nights this week at Albertson's with sizzling bonus buy savings throughout the store."

David Saville, executive director of the non-profit Hot August Nights, warned Albertson's last year that the store was infringing on the trademark.

Only Hot August Nights "and its licensees have the right to use the mark," Saville said in the lettter Aug. 11, 1998, to Albertson's officers at corporate headquarters in Boise, Idaho.

A spokeswoman for the media relations office at Albertson's headquarters said there was no one immediately available to comment Monday afternoon.

Ken McKenna, a lawyer for Hot August Nights, said the group routinely sends out a dozen or two letters a year notifying mostly small business owners of trademark violations.

"It's mostly little individuals who put a sign up in the window or advertise a 'Hot August Nights special - beer half price,"' he said.

"We send a letter that says 'Please don't do it anymore' and they say, 'Sorry, we didn't know' and they stop," McKenna said.

"But here's big old Albertson's. They should know better," he said in an interview Monday.

"And now they did it again, so now it's take no prisoners. We're mad as hell," he said.

Telephone messages left at Raley's headquarters in Sacramento, Calif., were not immediately returned.

McKenna said Raley's had paid for the right to be a sponsor, although he did not disclose the amount.

"Hot August Nights is a registered trademark. It is just like McDonalds, or Big Mac or Albertson's for that matter," he said.

"Why would you pay to be a licensee if someone else could use the same trade mark for free?"

The lawsuit said the trademark now "designates excellent services to the state of Nevada and has gained great value in the marketplace..."

"Despite being placed on notice of their violations of plaintiff's rights, defendants have used the mark maliciously, with the intent to deprive the plaintiff of their rights ... to generate income from the use of the mark."

No hearing date has been set. McKenna said he is considering whether to request a preliminary injunction to block Albertson's from any future use of the trademark.

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