Little Trees

Little Trees are disposable air fresheners in the shape of a stylized evergreen tree, marketed for use in cars and most commonly seen hanging from rear-view mirrors of vehicles. They are made of a specially formulated absorbent material produced in a variety of colors and scents.

Little Trees were invented in 1952 in Watertown, New York by a German immigrant and businessman Julius Sämann. They are manufactured in the United States by the Car-Freshner Corporation (such as Royal Pine) at factories in Watertown, New York and DeWitt, Iowa. Several companies in Europe produce Little Trees under license from Julius Sämann Ltd. using the names Wunder-Baum (Sweden, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Romania) and Arbre Magique (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal). The company is known for pursuing lawsuits to protect its trademark.

Car-Freshner fiercely defends its trademark on the tree-shaped air freshener design, and has filed several lawsuits against makers of lookalike products, and against companies that use their products in other commercial media.

In 2002, Car-Freshner sued Rite Way Wholesale and Distributors, Inc. of New York for importing and distributing a "vanilla-scented tree shaped air fresheners with a patriotic design". As a result of the judgement, the defendants were required to surrender their entire inventory to the plaintiffs for destruction, and were required to pay an unspecified penalty.

In 2006, they sued Dale Detwiler (owner of the Austin-based Corndog Cards & Novelties) after Detwiler company produced holiday greeting cards that bore a glow-in-the-dark image of a scratch-and-sniff tree-shaped air freshener.

In 2006, they won a suit against UK-based Tetrosyl Ltd for producing a tree-shaped air freshener that "included snow, flashing lights, the shape of a tub at the bottom".

In 2009, they sued Getty Images for unauthorized use of its tree-shaped air fresheners in a series of stock photographs.

Julius Sämann Ltd. filed a complaint with the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) against Bulgarian air-freshener manufacturer Balev Eood for producing an aircraft-shaped air freshener which was somewhat similar in shape to their trademarked fir tree shape. NIPO rejected the complaint, and the Board of Appeal upheld the decision in January 2011.

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Wikipedia