MANHATTAN (CN) - Twenty-two unlicensed Mr. Softee trucks are prowling the streets of New York, the company claims in a federal lawsuit against four former franchisees.
Mister Softee sued four former franchisees on Monday in Federal Court. All the defendants work out of the same address in Long Island City.
The famous soft ice-cream maker claims that the defendants kept running their ice cream trucks on the streets after Mr. Softee had terminated their franchises.
It claims that they continued to do it even after a federal judge told them, on July 1, to cut it out.
Mr. Softee seeks damages for trademark infringement and unfair competition. It is represented by Mark Jaffe with Tor Ekeland of Brooklyn, and Jeffrey Zucker with Fisher Zucker of Philadelphia.
The defendants are Anthony Tsatsaros, Michael Vasiadis, Tommy Dalageorgos and Thomas FotinaKopoulos, all of the same address in Long Island City.
Mr. Softee was founded in 1956 in Philadelphia, by the Conway family.
Its 350 franchisees run 600 trucks in 15 states, more or less, according to publicly available information. In 2007, it opened its first franchise in China.
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