Is It a Copy or Is It a Xerox? Firm Must Stop Using Logo

A Newbury Park company that markets copier and printer supplies has been ordered by a federal court to stop using the Xerox Corp. trademark and traditional Xerox markings on its products and packages.

The permanent injunction, issued last month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, prohibits Graphic Technologies Corp. and its president, Ira J. Seaver, from imitating Xerox packaging.

It also requires Graphic to send customers a letter explaining the order and acknowledging that it had improperly used the Xerox name and trademark.

The court ordered Graphic to ask its customers to return any of its products bearing the Xerox trademark.

Xerox filed the trademark infringement suit June 14, claiming that in addition to using the Xerox name, Graphic was decorating its packages with a colored stripe and other markings traditionally used by the Stamford, Conn., copier and computer giant.

A source at Graphic said Seaver was out of town and unavailable for comment.

Judd Everhart, a Xerox spokesman, said he knew little about Graphic except that the company is a major distributor of copier supplies in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. “The main product involved was toner, a black powder used in copying machines,” Everhart said. “They were imitating our trademark and logos on packages of toner that we hadn’t produced.”

The order allows Graphic to state that its products are usable with Xerox equipment so long as they are labeled with a notice that they are not manufactured or warranted by Xerox.