The Stanley Black & Decker tool company is suing Pacific Market International, makers of Stanley cups, alleging that the latter has used the name “Stanley” in a way that violates prior agreements.

In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut Monday, the Stanley tool company said that, under a 2012 agreement, PMI was only supposed to use the name “Stanley” on food and drinkware. It also restricted PMI’s use of the name for website domains, advertising and as a company name more broadly.

Stanley Black & Decker claims that PMI “stopped including ’PMI’ in its company name and changed its name to just Stanley” and “identified itself as Stanley in the marketplace, on products, in advertising, and in its website domain.”

The tool company also objected to the association of the name “Stanley” and various recalls of the drinkware product, including for lead and burn hazards. As such, PMI “unjustly shifted the reputational harm of PMI’s defective products from PMI to Stanley,” the tool company said.

Stanley Black & Decker asked the court to impose an unspecified amount of monetary damages and to prevent PMI from its alleged inappropriate use of the name “Stanley.”

In a release Friday, PMI contested Stanley Black & Decker’s claims, arguing that it is only using its own trademarks for food and beverage containers, including a distinctive winged bear logo and the brand’s founding year, 1913. It also said that the tool company has no rights for its food and beverage products.

PMI Global President Matt Navarro said that Stanley Black & Decker is “apparently seeking to capitalize on our success and undermine over a century of innovation and hard work developing our food and beverage containment products.”

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.