NEW YORK -- Enterprise Rent-A-Car said it plans to take legal
action against Hertz and Advantage Rent-A-Car for imitating an
Enterprise-trademarked advertising slogan.
Enterprise developed its tag line "We'll pick you up" in 1994,
and the company claims it has spent millions of dollars on
advertisements featuring the trademarked slogan. The St.
Louis-based company said its trademark status prevents other
companies from "using [the] slogan or anything 'confusingly
similar.' "
Responding to Enterprise's allegation, David Parkoff, assistant
general counsel for Hertz, said the company "believes that it can
use the English language words 'we'll pick you up' and their
variants in a descriptive/informational sense as it presently does
and that Enterprise's claim of trademark rights in those words is
misplaced and does not prevent such use."
In May, a U.S. district court judge ordered that Rent-A-Wreck of
America, based in Maryland, stop using slogans that used the phrase
"pick you up."