7-Eleven Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Seven Eleven Law Group LLC, a Chicago law firm that specialized in trademark law, and its founder India Rios, alleging trademark infringement, unfair competition and trademark dilution, according to court documents.
The convenience-store company has historically and currently used a combination of green, white, red and orange in its various logos in stylized and non-stylized formats, it said in court documents. “Typically, green is the color that occupies the most surface area of the traditional … logos … and a similarly green-colored background superimposed by white text is a common color scheme,” the retailer said. “7-Eleven has developed goodwill, public recognition and strong rights in its 7-Eleven marks, which consumers have come to know and trust as symbols of quality and value.”
It added, “7-Eleven’s considerable success has enabled it to have a sizable legal department, consisting of a general counsel, as well as 21 attorneys plus additional staff members. These in-house professionals serve 7-Eleven regarding its legal needs across several areas of the law, including business and intellectual property law.”
Seven Eleven Law Group’s logos, color schemes and other marks that appear on signage “consistently appear in green and white colors that are evocative of the green and white traditionally used in rendering 7-Eleven’s … marks, as well as the green and white color scheme that appears frequently on 7-Eleven’s official website,” the suit alleges.
“Defendants’ unauthorized use of the Seven Eleven Law marks is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake or to deceive customers and potential customers of the parties as to some affiliation, connection or association of defendants’ business with 7-Eleven, or as tothe origin, sponsorship or approval of defendants’ goods and/or services,” it said. The “defendants’ unauthorized use of the Seven Eleven Law marks enables defendants to trade on and receive the benefit and goodwill built up at great labor and expense over many years by 7-Eleven.
It concludes that the defendant is “being unjustly enriched at the expense of 7-Eleven and the public.”
7-Eleven is demanding a jury trial and seeks to recover damages “based on defendants’ malicious, fraudulent, deliberate, willful, intentional and bad-faith conduct,” legal fees and other relief.
- 7-Eleven Inc. is No. 1 on CSP’s 2023 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 13,000 stores in the United States and Canada. In addition to 7-Eleven stores, the company operates and franchises Speedway and Stripes stores and the Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits brands.
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