B & G Equipment Co. Inc. (Delaware Corporation) B&G, B&G Equipment, B & G, B & G Equipment, cecil Patterson, CEO B & G Equipment Co. engages in BULLYING of small business, with threats and intimidation tactics, unethical behavior Jackson, Georgia

B&G Equipment Co. has engaged the law firm of DLA Piper in Philadelhia PA to engage in harassment and intimidation of a small business owner, without a valid cause of action.

B & G Equipment Co has initiated a "Trademark/Trade Dress Infringement" complaint against my company ( Southern Chemical & Equipment, LLC. ) that has no merit whatsoever. This is nothing but harassment and intimidation over an issue where they already lost.

I, Steve LaCroix,  am the owner of Southern Chemical & Equipment, LLC in Sarasota, FL. I am a licensed pesticide dealer, and I sell all sorts of pest control equipment and supplies, and do equipment repair. Here's where the problem started.

B&G has been the long time manufacturer / supplier of a 1 gallon stainless steel pump sprayer that is commonly used in the pest control industry. Commonly referred to as a "B&G". Recently, Ensystex has launched a 1 gallon stainless steel sprayer of its own, even after about 2 years of battling with B&G over this same issue regarding trademark, etc.

Obviously B&G lost that battle, because Ensystex launched its ACCUTHOR 1 gallon stainless steel sprayer under it's Thor branded line of products, which became available just a few weeks ago. I am a re-seller of these products so I brought them into my inventory as I felt it is a good item, and in my opinion far superior to the B&G product, being more features for the money spent.


As a small business owner, I take full advantage of all means of legitimate marketing for my products, to grow my business. As a result, I listed this product on Ebay to gain exposure, and very quickly a B&G representative contacted Ebay with an unfounded, fraudulent complaint that I was in violation of the law under trademerk rules on my listing, and had it removed, and a listring violatiobn placed on my account.



I called Ebay, and got the listing violation removed, and have relisted my listing on Ebay, this time with multiple disclaimers. You can see the product listing and disclaimers at my Ebay site under sarasota_fl_pest_supply. The differences between the 2 products are major, and keep in mind that the Ensystex product has already cleared these obstacles, right????



So, with that said, this is just a case of clearcut harassment and bullying of a small business by a big business who has already lost the battle!



Nothing but harassment and bullying.



DLA Piper US LLP needs to do their homework before engaging in illegal and unethical harassment of small business, in my opinion.