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A Ligonier businesswoman has sued a well-known Los Angeles tanning salon and its owners, alleging trademark infringement and accusing the company of unfair competition.
Renee Gabet owns Annie Oakley Inc., a company she started in the 1980s. The perfumery makes a full line of fragrances and bath products for men and women. It sells online and in thousands of stores worldwide, Gabet said.
One of Gabet’s product lines – which includes hand and body creams, bath gel and body spray – is marketed under the name Sunset. It is a skincare registration trademark Gabet has held since the mid-1990s.
Owned by Devin Haman and Jeff “Bozz” Bozigan, the Los Angeles tanning-salon-to-the-stars, Sunset Tan, has its own reality show on the E! Entertainment cable TV network and its own product line as well – tanning lotions and oils – that it sells under the name Sunset Tan.
In her seven-count lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Gabet alleges federal trademark infringement, federal trademark dilution, unjust enrichment, false designation of origin and unfair competition.
She is seeking an injunction prohibiting Sunset Tan from using the Sunset trademark in connection with the use and sale of skin care products and financial damages. Gabet also wants the court to declare she has the sole right to the trademark, according to court documents.
“It’s all about protection,” Gabet said of her lawsuit. “When you do have a trademark, you constantly have to protect.”
The tanning salon, according to court documents, failed in its attempt to trademark the use of the word “Sunset” for its body products in part because of the existence of Gabet’s Sunset product line.
So Sunset Tan’s owners contacted Gabet to work out a deal with the trademarks, according to court documents.
“I had never even seen the show,” Gabet said, with a laugh. “I was kind of shocked when I saw their Web site.”
Discussions broke down partly because of the differences in the companies’ images, reflected in the respective Web sites.
For Annie Oakley, the Web site uses tranquil images of green pastures and horses grazing.
Sunset Tan’s Web site is all Hollywood – bikini-clad models and fast cars and additional advertisements.
The L.A. tanning salon, founded in 2003, has become a franchise, with salons popping up elsewhere in California, Texas and New Jersey.
After discussions with the tanning salon broke down, Gabet said she had to spend a lot of money in attorneys’ fees to defend the trademark, and the bills are probably still going up with the new federal lawsuit.
And at some point, Sunset Tan petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel Gabet’s “Sunset” trademark, claiming she had abandoned it, according to court documents.
“It is an awful feeling when someone keeps on coming at you,” Gabet said. “And they’ve been told no, but they won’t take no for an answer.”
Messages left for Sunset Tan at both the main salon and with corporation officials in Los Angeles were not returned Thursday.
