BOISE, Idaho — A Utah-based company is apologizing to a Boise business owner, as well as dozens of others, after it threatened to sue them all for trademark infringement.
Boise Gear Collective was started in 2012 but back then, it was known as Backcountry Pursuit. It was in business for almost five years when the owner, Tyson Stellrecht, filed for a trademark on the business name.
During that process, another company called Backcountry.com filed an opposition to the trademark and sent Boise Gear Collective a cease and desist order. The company claimed trademark infringement over the use of the word "backcountry."
Stellrecht said the company does indeed hold a legal trademark over the word "backcountry," which was frustrating because he feels it's very broad.
“'Backcountry' is an umbrella term for the places we go and the experiences we have,” he said.
Rather than paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the issue in court, Stellrecht decided to re-brand.
“It was really difficult," he said. "We had built a brand around Backcountry Pursuit."
It cost tens of thousands of dollars to re-brand, Stellrecht said, and the business also had to close its second location in Eagle because it couldn't afford to re-brand and still stay in business.
“The work was extensive and all-encompassing,” he said.
Word of the threatened lawsuits prompted a Facebook group called "Boycott BackcountryDOTcom," which has almost 22,000 members, and has sparked outrage directed toward the company.
Because of that backlash, Backcountry.com last week issued an apology to Boise Gear Collective.
Brad Frazer, a trademark lawyer with Hawley Troxell in Boise, said when it comes to trademark law, there are a lot of components to consider.
“A trademark does not convey a monopoly right to the word itself," he said. "It doesn’t convey a monopoly to all uses of the word.”
To hold up in court, Frazer said the product, image or word must be infringing on the trademark. Essentially, it needs to be a competing trademark.
“The plaintiff, to win a trademark infringement lawsuit, has to prove that consumers would think that the defendant is the source of that good or service,” he said. “It must be used in a manner that suggests to consumers that’s the source of the product."
Frazer gives an example of what that might look like.
"My favorite example is to think of a Ralph Lauren shirt," he said. "When you see the horse on that shirt, without more [information], you know the source of that shirt is Ralph Lauren. But that doesn’t give Ralph Lauren a monopoly on the use of all small horse logos.”
However, if IZOD suddenly started using Ralph Lauren's logo, people would assume it came from that company rather than IZOD. That, Frazer said, would be grounds for trademark infringement.
Trademark cases are very common and pop up often, but according to Frazer, many never make it to court because the parties involved typically settle to avoid the high costs associated with the legal process.
Stellrecht said it's been frustrating but he's hopeful he can work with Backcountry.com to resolve the issue.
“I do very much believe that Backcountry.com has every right to protect their individual trademarks but I feel like they went too far," he said.
KTVB reached out to Backcountry.com and the CEO, Jonathan Nielsen, sent the following statement:
“We clearly messed up here and wish we had handled this situation differently. We now realize our actions were not consistent with our values. Our leadership is rethinking how we engage with the community, to ensure our behavior is more respectful and better reflects our culture. One big step in that direction is that we have formed a partnership with Marquette Backcountry and David Ollila.
"Together, we will grow the Marquette brand and business on the Backcountry platform, we will support two of his foundations that foster entrepreneurship and David will assume an advisory role to build stronger community relations. We don’t expect everyone to forgive us immediately, but we are hopeful that people will take our word at face value that we are committed to putting in the time and effort necessary to turn things around.”