The American Petroleum Institute announced Monday it has settled its lawsuit against blender and distributor Tailor Made Oil of Indiana over counterfeiting of API engine oil quality certification marks.
API sued seven companies and individuals associated with blender and distributor Tailor Made Oil in October 2011. Filed in Federal District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, the lawsuit named Tailor Made Oil Co. LLC, TM Oil LLC, Circle Town Oil – three related Indiana companies – and New York-based distributor Jafarikal Corp. as company co-defendants. Individuals associated with the Indiana businesses and named as co-defendants included William R. Selkirk, Rebecca Selkirk and Lincoln R. Schneider.
The lawsuit alleged that Tailor Made Oil and its owners, William and Rebecca Selkirk, had falsely claimed that their oil had been licensed by API in order to use APIs engine oil quality certification marks that denote an oil meets APIs stringent engine oil performance standards. Rather than go to trial, the defendants admitted that they counterfeited API’s engine oil quality certification marks and made false performance claims for Tailor Made-branded engine oil sold to consumers and multiple branches of the military. According to the lawsuit document, the military branches purchasing the oil included the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.
As part of the settlement, William and Rebecca Selkirk agreed to a 10-year ban on bottling or marketing any engine oil for diesel engines and for use in gasoline engines in cars, vans, trucks and motorcycles. They also agreed to a 10-year ban on selling to the U.S. government.
Contacted by Lube Report, William Selkirk declined comment on the settlement.
In the lawsuit, API had sought preliminary and permanent injunctions as well as monetary relief, including damages sustained by API in amount not yet determined but believed to be well in excess of $75,000. It also sought statutory damages of $1 million per counterfeit mark per type of goods sold.
Financial damages were part of the settlement, and earlier settlements were agreed to by the other defendants who cooperated with API in the Tailor Made Oil case, API spokesman Bill Bush told Lube Report, explaining API could not go into specifics because the settlements are not public.
API will continue to protect consumers from false claims that low-quality engine oils meet API’s tough performance requirements, John Modine, API’s director for Global Industry Services, said in a statement. We constantly test engine oil samples taken from around the world to determine if they meet the API performance claims.
For more information on APIs lawsuit, read the Oct. 19, 2011 Lube Report article.