Two air conditioning companies feud over billboard slogans

DAVIE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Two competing air conditioning companies are feuding over billboard slogans, which one claims the other has ripped off.

Two air conditioning companies are engaged in combat over the slogans "Your wife is hot" and "Your wife is not hot."

Coral Springs based Air Around the Clock has launched a legal war against Fort Lauderdale based All Year Cooling. The operations manager for Air Around the Clock, Mike Lang, claims that All Year Cooling copied their ad campaign. "We trademarked the name, and what it says is that they infringed on our name," said Lang. "Not only did they copy it that way, but they used the same colors and everything, the graphics and the billboard."

Attorney John Malloy for All Year Cooling said, "These are common plays on words, and they don't qualify for trademark protection. There's only so many ways that you can convey a sort of fun message about fixing your air-conditioning so that your family is not hot," Malloy said.

Air Around the Clock claims they launched the billboard campaign in January featuring the line "Your wife is hot." The air conditioning company claims All Year Cooling answered with a summer advertising assault featuring the phrase "Your wife is not hot."

Lang feels All Year Cooling is trying to capitalize on their customers. "I don't think it's good for us. First off, we had the idea originally and also, what's happening is the customers are getting confused, and they're thinking that their billboards are ours, and ours are theirs," Lang said.

"There are no intentions on taking someone else's customers," Malloy responded.

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