MEMPHIS, Tenn.-- Earlier this year, Haitham Alyousef and his business partners put the Pemex name and logo on two gas stations they own in Memphis, Tenn., in an effort to attract the thousands of Mexican immigrants who live here, reported The Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Alyousef said they did not seek permission from Pemex to do this, but according to the report, they are not breaking U.S. law. They might even win if Pemex sued them, since courts have traditionally ruled that American law does not protect foreign brands that are not in widespread use here.
Some immigrants in Memphis [image-nocss] say Alyousef's use of the Pemex name is deceptive, but he said he is not trying to trick anyone. He said he got the idea during a recent visit to Cancun, Mexico, where he saw Pemex stations. The Mexican stations bear the red, white and green eagle logo of Pemex, or Petroleos Mexicanos, the state oil monopoly.
The situation illustrates a controversy over the brand names and symbols that lead customers to make split-second judgments about products and services, said the report. Some attorneys, like Michel J. Ayer of Phoenix, argue that increased global trade and immigration mean America should give greater trademark protection to foreign companies. "Foreign firms from around the globe are increasingly finding that their [trademarks] have been 'pirated' in the United States," Ayer wrote last year in The Journal of Corporation Law.
Alyousef said he and his business partners are Palestinian immigrants who enjoy reminders of home, and believe Mexican immigrants feel the same way. "Overall, it was a very good experience for the Mexicans to see something from their own native country," he told the Commercial Appeal.
Records cited by the newspaper show that Alyousef and partners incorporated a Memphis company called Pemex Inc. in November, then paid $700,000 for a station in Hickory Hill. They hired a local sign company to make Pemex symbols. The station now has big Pemex logos on the building, pumps and a tall sign outside. A second station in East Memphis has only a Pemex sign near the street, said the report. Signs on the building and pumps read "Gas Express."
The owners didn't talk to the Mexican company before doing all this, but they may contact Pemex soon to discuss working together, Alyousef said.
He said the stations buy gas from various suppliers and do not have direct ties to Mexico.
To increase their appeal to immigrants, the stations offer Hispanic foods and services that let people send money to Latin America, the report added.
The stations draw American-born clients, but both are in neighborhoods with large numbers of Hispanic immigrants, and many newcomers from Central America and Mexico were filling up vehicles when a Commercial Appeal reporter visited in recent weeks.
Some Mexican immigrants like seeing the Pemex logo. "I think it's great," Joel Martinez, a 37-year-old from Mexico City who said he often uses the Macon station, told the paper. "It's part of my land, right here."
Meanwhile, a YouTube clip shows a man speaking newscaster-style in front of the Hickory Hill station. "I don't know if this is a fraud, but believe me, this is attracting many, many of us Hispanics who live here," he said in Spanish, according to the report. The video's title is "Pemex in the US? Truth or Fraud?"
Alyousef responded: "This is maybe their perspective, and everybody's entitled to their perspective, but we're not trying to deceive anybody."
Representatives of Pemex reached in Mexico City told the paper that they were investigating the matter.
If Pemex ever sues, a key issue will be its use of its trademark here, the report said. German car maker Volkswagen, which uses its trademarks here, could sue a company that copied them.
By contrast, Pemex, which exports petroleum products but does not have gas stations outside Mexico, would have a hard time stopping Alyousef.
A Mexican grocery chain complained about an American company's use of the Gigante name near the U.S.-Mexico border and won a positive ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California. "There can be no justification for using trademark law to fool immigrants into thinking that they are buying from the store they liked back home," a judge wrote in a 2002 opinion.
But owners of Bukhara, a famous luxury restaurant in India, were rejected by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York last year in a dispute with an American company using the name. The court said the Indian owners had given up U.S. rights years earlier, when they abandoned their American restaurants and trademark registration, and that an exception for famous brands didn't apply.
Alyousef said he and his business partners may open more Pemex stations in Memphis, he told the paper. "It's an experience that we're trying to build on."
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