Seattle mortgage lender Evergreen Moneysource Mortgage Co., Inc., voluntarily dismissed without prejudice its trademark infringement and unfair competition claims today against Puyallup resident Joel Lundberg and others who offer competing mortgage lending services under the “Evergreen Mortgage” trade name and EvergreenHomeLoans.com domain name.
Evergreen’s complaint had alleged that defendants’ use of “Evergreen” infringed Evergreen’s federally-registered trademark, EVERGREEN MORTGAGE.
Interestingly, Evergreen’s complaint states: “Defendant admitted through their attorney, by letter dated October 24, 2005, addressed to a representative of Plaintiff that ‘[t]here is, of course, at least a possibility, if not a likelihood, of confusion among consumers about [plaintiff] Evergreen Moneysource and [defendant] Evergreen Mortgage being one and the same, but we believe that this is more hypothetical than real.’”
Evergreen was able to dismiss its case under Rule 41(a)(1)(i) because it filed its notice of dismissal before defendants served their answer.
The case is Evergreen Moneysource Mortgage Company, Inc., v. Lundberg, et al., No. 07-05127 (W.D. Wash).