Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 20, 1994                   TAG: 9410200071
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI FURNITURE SUES

The company this week filed the complaints in U.S. District Court in Roanoke against Chicago-based Philip Reinisch Co. and the Alexvale Furniture Inc., located in Taylorsville, N.C.

The Pulaski-based manufacturer of home furnishings and clocks accuses Philip Reinisch of copying its Collector's Cabinet, one of its "most popular and successful pieces."

Pulaski Furniture has been manufacturing the china and curio cabinet, with its "inherently distinctive" shape and look, for 12 years. In that period, sales of the cabinet have totaled $20 million, Pulaski's suit says.

The suit also says that Philip Reinisch advertised a similar cabinet in the Oct. 3 issue of Furniture/Today, a trade magazine, and that the Chicago company is trying to confuse customers into thinking they are buying a Pulaski Furniture product.

Stan Reinisch, a co-owner of Philip Reinisch, reached Wednesday at the semiannual wholesale furniture market in High Point, N.C., declined to comment on the suit.

The complaint against Alexvale is similar, accusing the North Carolina company of copying one of Pulaski Furniture's Fossil Stone tables - which has had sales of $60 million since it was introduced four years ago. Alexvale officials could not be reached for comment.

Pulaski Furniture doesn't specify monetary damages in either suit, but does ask that it be awarded any profits the competitors make from selling the items in dispute. Pulaski asks the court to prevent Philip Reinisch and Alexvale from continuing to manufacture those two pieces of furniture and to destroy any related advertisements or goods that exist.

An attorney for Pulaski Furniture declined to discuss the case.