For years, when Saskatchewan and Ottawa played each other in football, it was a sure bet the “Roughriders” would win.
Both Canadian Football Leagues teams shared that name, albeit spelled differently.
In a lawsuit filed recently in Toronto and Winnipeg, one can make a similar prediction: the winner will be Pioneer.
The question is whether it will be Pioneer Hi-Bred or Pioneer Grain.
The fact that two separate companies with the same name are engaged in the same business is at the heart of the legal dispute.
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Pioneer Hi-Bred (PHB) of Chatham, Ont., is suing Pioneer Grain of Winnipeg over the use of the name Pioneer in agricultural seed sales, marketing and distribution in Canada.
The lawsuit asks the courts to, among other things, issue an injunction against Pioneer Grain from infringing on PHB’s trademarks and award unspecified damages.
In a news release announcing the filing of the lawsuit, the company said the action is necessary to protect its rights to the Pioneer brand name.
“Pioneer Hi-Bred is the only company that has the right to use the Pioneer brand name as it relates to the marketing and sale of seed in Canada,” said company president Ian Grant.
The company said a longstanding agreement between the two firms, which it claims gives PHB the sole right to use the Pioneer brand name for seed sales in Canada, is being violated by Pioneer Grain.
Pioneer Grain spokesperson Jean-Marc Ruest, said the claims made in the lawsuit are without merit.
Ruest, vice-president of corporate affairs, said Pioneer Grain has been using the Pioneer brand name to sell seed since 1913, well before Pioneer Hi-Bred began doing business in Canada in 1948, and described PHB’s decision to take legal action as disappointing.
“They appear to be high-handed and a poorly conceived attempt to intimidate us, hoping that we will abandon a trade name that has been proudly used by the Richardson family for several generations,” he said.
In an interview, Ruest denied the company is violating an agreement between the two firms but declined to release details of its defence until court documents are filed within the next few weeks.
According to PHB’s statement of claim, which consists of allegations not yet proven in court, the two companies entered into an agreement in 1974 under which Pioneer Grain agreed not to use the trademark name Pioneer in selling seed and other agricultural products.
It says after a number of disputes, a cross-licensing agreement was signed in 1996, under which Pioneer Grain assigned all rights associated with the name Pioneer to PHB. It also alleges that Pioneer Grain has violated that agreement by selling canola seed under the sole name Pioneer.
Ruest said the allegations are false and said the company is confident it will prevail.
Pioneer Hi-Bred has been expanding into Western Canada in an attempt to increase its market share in the seed business. In the past year it has doubled its field staff in the West and opened a $12 million seed production plant in Lethbridge.
Pioneer Hi-Bred Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pioneer Hi-Bred of Des Moines, Iowa, which is owned by Dupont.
Pioneer Grain, which recently changed its name to Richardson Pioneer, is a division of Richardson International, a longtime fixture in the western Canadian agriculture scene.
The lawsuits were filed Aug. 28 in Federal Court in Toronto and Court of Queen’s Bench in Winnipeg. PHB asks that the case be heard in Toronto.
