Southern Highlands sues company over trademark dispute

By Steve Green

Friday, Oct. 8, 2010 | 3:16 p.m.

The developer of the Southern Highlands community in the Las Vegas Valley has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against a landscaping company after learning the firm was passing out business cards that used the Southern Highlands logo.

Southern Highlands LLC filed suit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Monday against Scott Reid, Donnell Reid and Super Clean Cut Landscaping.

The suit says Southern Highlands became aware in July 2009 that the defendants were using one of the Southern Highlands trademarks and that in April attorneys sent Scott Reid a fax and letter mailed "first class" demanding he stop using the Southern Highlands name.

Scott Reid, owner of the company, said Friday he remembers things differently. He said that after passing out business cards in Southern Highlands, where he owns property and does work, he was told by security to stop distributing the cards and that security apparently turned over one of the business cards to Southern Highlands officials.

This was about a year and a half ago and at that time he received a call from someone at Southern Highlands who said he couldn't use the Southern Highlands logo on his cards, Reid said.

Reid said that at that time he stopped using that logo on his cards and that in April he didn't receive a letter or fax from Southern Highlands' attorneys.

Reid said Friday that since he owns property in the community and pays association dues, he felt at the time it would be appropriate to use the logo and that there was no intent to deceive anyone into thinking his firm was part of the Southern Highlands development company.

"We were not saying we were with Southern Highlands," Reid said, adding use of the logo was part of his company's marketing to inform consumers that Super Clean Cut Landscaping wanted to keep Southern Highlands a nice community and help homeowners avoid fines for having weeds in their yards and other violations.

But Southern Highlands charged in its lawsuit that use of the logo by Super Clean Cut on the cards has caused "confusion, mistake or deception in that the public is likely to believe, mistakenly, that defendants' use of the Southern Highlands mark ... has its origin or source with Southern Highlands, or is in some manner approved by, associated with, sponsored by or connected with Southern Highlands."