AAA sues Pompano Beach auto shop

Motor club targeting four-employee business for trademark infringement

Remember the phone book? Once upon a time, that’s how most consumers found local businesses.

Today, a strategy some businesses used to get noticed in the phone book can bring them nothing but trouble.

Just ask AAA Wholesale Transmissions, a four-employee auto repair shop on North Dixie Highway in Pompano Beach.

On Jan. 13, the business was targeted in a trademark infringement lawsuit by the American Automobile Association (AAA), the venerable towing service that has branched out into numerous other ventures over the past century.

Shop owner Steven Cigna told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he bought his business about 20 years ago and chose to put AAA in front of its name so it would appear on the first page of the phone book.

“The more A’s you had, the further up to the beginning you would be,” he said.

AAA’s latest lawsuit is one of more than 400 infringement suits it has filed across the U.S. since the 1980s, according to federal

court records.

Several have targeted South Florida businesses, like AAA Cruise America (1987), AAA Financial Corp., (1998), AAA American Bonding (1994), and AAA Easy Out (1994).

The suit against AAA Wholesale Transmissions, filed by Samantha J. Kavanaugh of Akerman LLP’s Miami office and Neil K. Roman of New York-based Covington & Burling LLP, accuses the shop of unlawfully using AAA’s trademarks to “confuse” customers into believing “erroneously, that AAA has endorsed (the shop’s) products and services.”

The suit asks the court to force the transmission shop to immediately stop using AAA in its name, and to transfer its internet domain name, aaatransmissionsfl.com, to AAA.

The suit also seeks undisclosed financial damages that it says AAA suffered “as a result of the infringing use.”

Trademark infringement suits by companies with well-known brand names are common against companies, often fraudsters, that seek to mislead consumers into believing they are connected to or endorsed by the brands.

Court rulings have established that companies must defend their brands against unauthorized uses. Failure to defend them can result in the brands being declared abandoned and available for generic use. Some examples are aspirin, cellophane, escalator and heroin.

Over the years, AAA has expanded its roadside assistance and towing services available to auto club members and is now involved in travel, insurance, banking, credit cards, loans, and more. It has registered more than 150 trademarks, its suit states, including several related to auto services, such as AAA Approved Auto Repair.

Cigna is far from the only business owner to use A’s to get noticed. The most recent Real Yellow Pages — yes, they still print it — contains a long list of such names.

In Broward County, there’s AAA Able Appliance Service, A A A Cash for Houses, and A A Action Appliance, among others.

The state Division of Corporations’ online database, Sunbiz.org, contain scores of such names, mostly defunct. One is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A TO Z Septic and Sewer Service Inc., formerly of North Miami Beach.

The strategy is virtually worthless in today’s internet search era. Feedbackwrench.com, a Minneapolis-based web design and digital marketing company, says using terms like “A1” or “AAA” in front of a business name can actually make it more difficult for the business to establish itself as a unique web entity.

Cigna said his business name went unnoticed for 20 years. Then in October, he started getting letters and phone calls from an attorney representing AAA, ordering him to change the business’ name.

The lawsuit states that Cigna failed to respond to the letters and on the phone “refused” to discontinue use of the AAA marks.

Cigna disputes this and said he told AAA attorney Simeon Botwinick of Covington & Burling by phone days before the suit was filed that he’d agreed to change the name.

Botwinick suggested other ways that Cigna could get the letter A at the front of the shop’s name, such as “A1A,” “A+” and “A” that would not infringe upon AAA’s trademark.

Then Botwinick said Cigna owed AAA $1,500 for legal work incurred in the effort up to that point — before the suit was filed, Cigna said.

Cigna said Botwinick told him he wouldn’t have had an issue if his business was unrelated to automobiles, but he identified other auto-related businesses that start with AAA and aren’t being sued.

Asked to comment about the case and Cigna’s statements, Botwinick said by phone, “AAA does not discuss its litigation or business strategies or any confidential settlement discussions in the press.”

Laura Bennett, the shop’s business manager, said she’s not looking forward to the pricey and time-consuming task of changing the shop’s sign, website and printed materials. She’s worried longtime customers will think the business changed hands.