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WHOA this is screwed cold steel sucks

We certainly do have a litigious society. It is too bad companies have to try to compete with each other in court but it seems to be the norm these days. I'm no lawyer but I'd put my money on Cold Steel for this one. I don't like their tactics but I suspect their action is legally sound since their trademark apparently precedes that of ATC. It will be interesting to watch.
 
Thank you Dave.

Fred...that is a fair assessment, and I appreciate your remarks here. However, allow me to develop a few more thoughts regarding this issue for everyone's benefit to make it more understandable.

1) A Trademark does not always entitlement make. In short, if you don't use it after you file for it, you lose it. Had Cold Steel sufficiently developed the brand identification, "American Tomahawk Company" after their filing, to the extent that the purchasing public identified that name or mark with Cold Steel, we would have been fools to fight for the same name at the time. Additionally, American Tomahawk Company, LLC was not even aware of Cold Steel's registration until its dispute. Peter LaGana had never privately licensed the name previously. Cold Steel's application for the mark, while lawful at the time, is suspect at this time, in terms of their recent use of it.

2) A mark is identified with, and owned by, the user who has a proponderance of evidence to support the development of the mark. American Tomahawk Company, LLC has invested significant time, money, and effort in the development of the brand name, "American Tomahawk Company", under an express license from Peter LaGana, the original founder of same. To date, "American Tomahawk Company" as a mark has never been developed by Cold Steel, and its supplemental trademark registration of same does not support their claim of infringement or exclusive use.

3) We have been unable to find a single person in our industry that can say the name "American Tomahawk Company" is or has ever been identified with Cold Steel's Tomahawks. This is a GIANT fact in and of itself.

4) We are devoid of understanding from a business perspective alone, in our small industry, how Cold Steel, in good conscience, could represent their Tomahawks using the mark, "American Tomahawk Company", particularly when they are made overseas (to our understanding) and at a time when American Tomahawk Company, LLC is clearly becoming a well recognized brand name by its own efforts, further expecting their position to be supported by the purchasing public.

I am not aware of a single advertisement in which Cold Steel's Tomahawks were ever marketed using the mark, "American Tomahawk Company". And even if there were one, or two, again, exclusive usage does NOT that entitle or make. This effort is against all that is "only right" in our view and in Mr. LaGana's view...including Cold Steel's former use of Mr. LaGana's personal name, suggesting that he somehow approved or endorsed same.

5) Cold Steel indeed proposed a remedy for this dispute to us previously, which in our view was totally ill-founded and offered no value to American Tomahawk Company, LLC whatsoever. We respectfully declined the proposal and expected this issue to sufficiently lie. Evidently, we were wrong, and will now have to go through the expense of resisting the attempts by Cold Steel to assume a brand name that it has no business attempting to claim in our view.
 
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