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Trademark issues at NETA

Boise Cascade Company on Wednesday sued New England Treatment Access in U.S. District Court in Boston, alleging that NETA is infringing on the lumber company’s trademark by using a similar logo.

Attorneys for Boise Cascade say Franklin-based NETA, which sells medical and recreational marijuana at stores in Northampton and Brookline, markets its products under a “confusingly similar tree-in-a-circle logo,” often presented in a “nearly identical” green color to the one Boise Cascade has used for decades.

NETA’s use of the logo “is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, and/or to deceive customers and potential customers” into seeing some affiliation between NETA and Boise Cascade, the lawsuit writes.

Boise Cascade — which did $5 billion worth of business last year selling wood products, lumber and office supplies — notes in its lawsuit that it is a government contractor that “provides a drug-free (including cannabis-free) workplace and requires all its employees to submit to random drug testing.” Based in Idaho, the company has a distribution center in Westfield and an administrative office in Billerica.

For over 55 years, Boise Cascade has used its trademarked logo featuring a circle around a tree with six branches, presented in either black or green. The logo appears on its products, trucks and marketing materials.