Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Appliance Doctor’ name dispute heats up

Appliance Doctor

Owners of Appliance Doctor LLC Sam and Mary Gravino are photographed in front of their work van Thursday, November 11, 2010.

A Las Vegas trademark infringement lawsuit over the "Appliance Doctor'' name is heating up, with one side accusing the other of violating a settlement agreement.

The legal dispute began in October 2009 when Sam and Mary Gravino, who have operated in Las Vegas under the Appliance Doctor LLC name since 1989, filed suit in Clark County District Court against newly-formed company The Appliance Doctor of Las Vegas.

Clark County District Judge Valorie Vega on Oct. 27, 2009, ruled in favor of the Gravinos, issuing a preliminary injunction requiring The Appliance Doctor of Las Vegas to stop using that name.

But after violations of her order, Vega in 2010 appointed a receiver to supervise related companies Atcher Service LLC and Bowdrie Inc., which like The Appliance Doctor of Las Vegas were founded by Ken and Melissa Jagmin.

The receivership orders were intended to preserve assets that the Gravinos had a claim to in their lawsuit, which sought $20,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

Attorneys for the Jagmins planned to appeal the receivership orders but say the appeal was canceled when a confidential settlement was reached with the Gravinos in August. That settlement was signed by attorneys for both sides and required confidentiality of its terms, attorneys for the Jagmins say.

The Gravinos, however, say the alleged settlement was never finalized and they never signed a settlement for two reasons:

— They say their attorney, Joseph Hong, told them the settlement had fallen apart because he had been unable to resolve a $67,000 lien his former law firm — Morris Polich & Purdy LLP -- had filed against any winnings in the case. Hong filed the suit while he was with Morris Polich & Purdy, but he later left that firm and is now with the firm Hong & Hong.

— Alleged trademark infringements continued to harm the Gravinos as a phone number the Jagmins used for The Appliance Doctor of Las Vegas hadn't been disconnected and continued to show up in Internet searches for "The Appliance Doctor of Las Vegas.''

That same number, along with a reference to The Appliance Doctor of Las Vegas associating it with Atcher Service, continues to show up in searches on Bing, Google and Yahoo.

It's unclear whether anyone associated with the case has asked search engines and underlying websites to remove the information that continues to show up online.

Such requests have been successful in removing trademark and copyright-infringing material from Google search results, a trademark and copyright holder has told the Las Vegas Sun.

The latest action in the Appliance Doctor lawsuit came last week, when attorneys for the Jagmins filed a motion asking that the case be dismissed and that the alleged settlement be enforced — but with no payment to the Gravinos.

"Because the amount of the attorney lien exceeds the settlement payment, defendant cannot make the settlement payment directly to plaintiff without likely incurring liability to the lien holder,'' the Jagmins' attorneys wrote in their motion. "Plaintiff has been unable to resolve the issue with previous counsel and has now left defendant no choice but to file this motion with the court to enforce the settlement and to dismiss this case with prejudice.''

"Further, in a blatant breach of the settlement agreement, plaintiff has disclosed the payment term to a newspaper reporter and now appears to want to avoid the settlement agreement,'' the filing said, pointing to a November Las Vegas Sun story about the case.

"Because plaintiff has violated the confidentiality clause of the settlement agreement, defendant should be absolved from its payment obligations pursuant to the settlement agreement,'' says the filing for the Jagmins' by their Las Vegas attorneys Peter Mortenson and Jason Peck of the law firm Mortenson & Rafie LLP.

The Gravinos, however, insist there is no confidentiality clause since they say there is no settlement.

Hong, the Gravinos' attorney, has not yet filed a response to the Jagmins' latest filing.

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