By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Circuit City Stores Inc. said on Friday it will fight to keep its right to use RadioShack Corp.'s name in Canada after RadioShack unveiled plans to open its first electronics stores there this year.
Circuit City said a U.S. court ruling in March that affirmed RadioShack's right to reclaim its brand name and gave Circuit City until June 30 to rebrand its Canadian stores did not mean it had given up its rights to the exclusive use of the RadioShack name.
Circuit City, the No. 2 U.S. electronics chain, said it had the right to use the RadioShack name until 2009 under a licensing agreement between RadioShack and InterTAN, a Canadian electronics retailer.
Circuit City, based in Richmond, Virginia, bought InterTAN last year, making its first foray into Canada where its top U.S. rival, Best Buy Co. Inc., already owns the country's largest electronics chain, Future Shop.
InterTAN, based in Barrie, Ontario, operates nearly 1,000 company owned and dealer stores in Canada under the RadioShack brand name.
According to RadioShack, which once owned InterTAN but divested its ownership in 1987, the March ruling prohibits Circuit City from using the RadioShack name in Canada or sub-licensing the name to its independent dealers past June.
But Brian Levy, InterTAN president and chief executive officer, said the Texas district court's decision was only a partial ruling on the legal issues tied to the branding dispute.
"Once a final ruling is issued by the court," he said in a statement, "Circuit City and its InterTAN subsidiary fully intend to appeal to protect our rights under the license agreement and for exclusive use of the RadioShack brand in Canada until 2009."
A court official told Reuters a hearing on the case is set for June 30.
Circuit City, which has been losing U.S. market share to Best Buy for more than four years, said it was "disappointed by RadioShack's hostility" after RadioShack unveiled its Canadian expansion push late on Thursday, saying it had won a lawsuit against Circuit City and was forming a division to oversee its Canadian foray.
In morning trading, RadioShack shares were down 4 cents at $22.18 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Circuit City shares were up 18 cents, or 1.02 percent, to $15.93.
(Additional reporting by Emily Kaiser in Chicago)
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