7/31/2019 Emeco Files Preliminary Injuction against Restoration Hardware

1/2

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EMECO FILES FOR A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AGAINST RESTORATION HARDWARE

Maker of the Iconic Navy Chair Takes Further Legal Action asThe New York Times Highlights Efforts to Protect The Core of Emecos Business.

SAN FRANCISCOOCT. 11Emeco Industries, Inc. has filed for a preliminary injunction in U.S.District Court here, seeking a range of remedies, including blocking Restoration Hardware frommanufacturing, marketing, advertising, and selling its cheap knockoffs of Emecos iconic Navy

Chair collection.

Were not going to stand by while Restoration Hardware steals our brand and trades on ourreputation by selling an inferior product, said Emeco CEO Gregg Buchbinder. Its important forAmerican companies to stand up for craftsmanship, quality and jobs. We not only want to stopRestoration Hardware but prevent others from doing similar damage to our economy.

Unlike Restoration Hardwares foreign-made knockoffs, Emecos Navy Chair is hand made by 54craftspeople in Hanover, Pennsylvania, through a 77-step process. The company works with topdesigners and uses recycled waste to make high-quality, sustainable products. The Navy Chairwhich is sold in 48 countries, is built to last 150 years.

The latest legal action comes at the same time as The New York Times published an article aboutthe companys efforts to protect the world-renowned Navy Chair, which the newspaper said isat the core of Emecos business. In the article, Once Again, Seeing Double, writer Julie Lasky

quoted Buchbinder as saying: The Navy chair is what we center everything around. Its the heritageof our company. Emecos CEO later added: If I dont fight, it kills the company.

The motion, tentatively set for a hearing on Nov. 16, follows a federal lawsuit filed Oct. 1 againstRestoration Hardware and its former CEO and present Creator and Curator Gary Friedman. Thecomplaint alleges that the giant home furnishing retailer has engaged in willful and flagrantinfringement of Emecos trade dress and trademark rights for its world-renowned Navy Chair byselling a series of cheap knockoffs with the near-identical Naval Chair name.

In seeking the injunction, Emeco argues that Restoration Hardwares actions will continue tocause irreparable harm to Emecos reputation unless the court intervenes. Emeco alleges that theknockoffs are a product of willful, intentional conduct that is part of Restoration Hardwares

established practice of using others designs and trademarks for financial gain.

The motion points out that Restoration Hardware has been the focus of a half-dozen copying andinfringement actions over the last decade, and cites a newspaper article in which the company isreferred to as Replication Hardware.

7/31/2019 Emeco Files Preliminary Injuction against Restoration Hardware

2/2

2

Emeco says, Restoration Hardware has in effect conceded a likelihood of consumer confusion overthe chairs by removing the words Naval Chair from its website, after the lawsuit was filed,apparently ceasing sales of the products. Nevertheless, Emeco argues that the injunction isnecessary because Restoration Hardware already distributed millions of catalogs featuring theinfringing products and continues to display the chairs on its website. And without an injunction,there is nothing to stop it from resuming its unlawful conduct at any moment, the motion says.

Emeco began production of the Navy Chair in 1944 under contract with the United States Navy,which wanted a chair capable of withstanding fire, weather, war and sailors. Because of itslightweight and durability, the chair soon became a fixture across America in police stations,prisons, schools and hospitals. As the Navy Chair became a design icon, it graced the covers offashion magazines, appeared in Hollywood movies, and was ordered by restaurants and otherestablishments worldwide. Celebrated for its craftsmanship and sustainable composition, the NavyChairs is now in permanent collections in art museums around the world.

Several years ago, Emeco formed a joined venture with Coca-Cola to reduce the number ofpolyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles ending up in the U.S. landfills. Today, each Navy Chair ismade with 111 up-cycled Coca-Cola PET bottles. By this year, the Emeco/Coca-Cola partnership

had taken more than eight million plastic bottles out of landfills.

Emeco has collaborated with the worlds best designers, starting with Philippe Starck in 2000, withwhom it developed a series of products, including the Hudson chair, designed for the HudsonHotel. In 2001, the Hudson won the GOOD Design Award and was accepted into the permanentcollection of the Museum of Modern Art.

In 2004, Emeco CEO Buchbinder began working with Frank Gehry to develop Superlight, whichwon a GOOD design award and was accepted into the permanent collections of the San FranciscoMuseum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Pinakotherk in Munich.In 2005, designer Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Design Group Designworks USA and Foster andPartners designed 20-06, a stacking chair for the 2006 Smithsonian addition in Washington, DC.20-06 won a Good Design, a Spark Design Award and the 2008 Baden-Wrttemberg InternationalDesign Award for environmentally progressive new products. In 2008, Emeco launched the Nine-O

Collection by Ettore Sottsass and the following year the Morgans chair by Andre Putman,designed for the restored Morgans Hotel in New York City. In 2010, Emeco launched the LancasterCollection, designed by British designer Michael Young. In the beginning of 2012 Emeco launchedthe Sezz collection designed by Christophe Pillet and in Milan 2012 the company launched yetanother material solution; the Broom chair designed by Philippe Starck, made using 90% postindustrial waste.

Emeco is on the leading edge of a movement in product development that promises a new, moreintelligent and sustainable way of life. Producing up-cycled chairs and stools in collaboration withsome of the worlds leading designers, architects, institutions, and respected global brands, Emecoand its partners share a commitment to a better, more beautiful future.

Contacts:Lia Forslund, Director of Communicationslia@emeco.net+46708111826www.emeco.net

Bob MagnusonMagnuson & Companyrgm@magnusonandcompany.com949.290.9382