U-Haul Advances Suit Over Public Storage Orange Trademark Threat

U-Haul International Inc. can advance its bid for a ruling that it doesn’t infringe Public Storage Operating Co.'s claimed orange storage door trademark as it showed reasonable concern of being sued, a federal judge said.

Public Storage’s cease-and-desist letter over U-Haul’s “Everyone Uses Orange Storage Doors” website provided strong evidence of a litigation threat, the US District Court for the District of Arizona said. U-Haul also adequately pleaded facts supporting its claim that Public Storage fraudulently maintained orange-based trademarks it didn’t use, District Judge Michael T. Liburdi said.

The Wednesday ruling turned on whether U-Haul had a “reasonable apprehension” that ...