ST. LOUIS — Michelin North America Inc. is suing Tire Mart Inc., which does business as Braven Off-Road, for alleged patent infringement regarding an Ironside-branded product and a Michelin trademarked tread pattern.
Michelin filed suit Sept. 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
According to the complaint, St. Louis-based Tire Mart infringed on Michelin's Patent No. D530,266 (the D'266 patent), which pertains to a tread Michelin uses for the BFGoodrich T/A M2 tire, it said.
Michelin claims that Tire Mart infringed on the D'266 design in its Ironside line of off-road tires. The complaint includes illustrations of the D'266 design as well as pictures of Ironside tires taken from the Tire Mart website. According to Michelin, the Ironside tread design is close enough to D'266 to deceive the ordinary tire buyer.