Toll Agency Sued Over FasTrak Name
IRVINE — FasTrak sounded like a catchy name to call the electronic toll-paying system for the new San Joaquin Hills and Foothill Eastern toll roads, but according to one man, it was already taken.
Robert K. Ameeti, the owner of FasTrak Barcode Systems, an inventory management company in Irvine, has filed a lawsuit against the corridor agencies and the state for trademark infringement, according to a filing in Orange County Superior Court.
Ameeti filed FasTrak as a business name with the county in 1992. Since that time, he said he has used a trademark symbol next to the name, giving him common law trademark rights.
He is seeking $500,000 in damages for the confusion and nuisance caused for his bar coding company by the toll road’s use of the name. “He gets calls daily from people saying they forgot to pay for the toll road and people saying they want a job,” said his attorney, Raymond Goettsch. Goettsch said Ameeti’s company also is appealing the agency’s pending trademark before a federal appeals board.
Toll road officials say that sharing the same name should not be a problem since the two groups are not direct competitors.
As to Ameeti’s phone hassles, toll road spokeswoman Lisa Telles said that could easily be remedied if the agency changed the way it lists itself in telephone books.
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