Ameriquest Trademark Lawsuit

Ameriquest has been accused by AMC Mortgage of infringing on its trademark and illegally using “AMC” in its marketing and business materials, according to the 21-page complaint.

Ameriquest’s use of the moniker is causing confusion among consumers and damaging AMC’s business, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

In addition, AMC claims Ameriquest fully knew that the company’s name because the two companies signed a deal to do business in 1995, when AMC signed a broker agreement with Ameriquest affiliate Long Beach Mortgage Co.

“(Ameriquest), knowing of AMC and its AMC (trademarks) and having done business with AMC in the past, adopted and began using (AMC) for various mortgage banking, brokering and lending services,” AMC said in the lawsuit.

Ameriquest spokesman Chris Orlando told MortgageDaily.com in an e-mail message that the company is not commenting on the suit because it has not been formally served with the court papers.

AMC wants a judge to bar Ameriquest from using the AMC name, determine how much money Ameriquest has made using the name and award the company unspecified damages.

In the suit AMC claims Ameriquest took steps to formally register the AMC trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2004 even though the company knew the name was used by AMC.

AMC said it has been using the name “continuously and prominently” since 1997.

In February of last year AMC filed its own petitions with the government to trademark its name, according to the suit.

In a similar but unrelated 2001 lawsuit, Florida-based Allied Mortgage Corp. sued Houston-based Allied Mortgage Capital Corp. over the use of the name.

“We expect to keep operating under the same name,” Jim C. Hodge, founder and CEO of the defendant company, told MortgageDaily.com at the time.

The Texas-based net branch operation now operates as Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp.