War vet may have won his case against Specialized

Dan Richter, the owner of the Café Roubaix Bicycle Studio in Cochrane, Alta., was threatened with a lawsuit from cycling giant Specialized late this past week. Specialized claimed that the owner did not have the right to use their trademarked name, “Roubaix.” In response, there has been an outpouring of support through social media in the past two days supporting the shop. The shop owner and war veteran who invested his life savings to open the store was no match legally against Specialized. The help of social media, which for the most part was against Specialized, perhaps worked.

In a post from Bicycle Retailer that went up on Monday, Advanced Sports International (ASI), who owns the rights to the name “Roubaix” has stated that it was willing to license the name to Richter and that he is free to use it in the future. In 1993, ASI, who owns Fuji bicycles, licensed the name Roubaix. In 2003, Specialized licensed the same name from ASI. Hence, Specialized appears to have overstepped its boundaries.

Before Monday, Richter said he had been approached by lawyers from Specialized, who were ordering him to change the name of his bicycle shop and also to hand over his company’s URL. ASI is now in the process of notifying Specialized that they do not have the authority, as per their licence agreement, to stop Daniel Richter from using the name Roubaix. The final piece that may end an effort by Specialized to have Café Roubaix’s name changed is the fact that their 2007 trademark registration with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office was also overstepping their agreement with ASI. They apparently didn’t have the legal right to do so in Canada as ASI pointed out to Bicycle Retailer.