Mineola 'Inspector Gadget' company sued

The owner of Inspector Gadget Home Inspections, a Mineola company, hopes to prevail in a federal trademark infringement lawsuit filed by a Canadian corporation that owns the rights to the film and cartoon character.

"I chose the name 'Inspector Gadget Home Inspections' not because of a cartoon but because of the amount of equipment I use. I was the first home inspector on Long Island to use infrared technology" in home inspections, Carlos Roldan said.

"I got the idea because my customers kept calling me 'Inspector Gadget,' " Roldan said.

"I don't think they have a case against me. It's not like I'm calling myself 'SpongeBob.' "

In a complaint filed March 16 in the case, Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc., of Toronto, also made other charges. It said Roldan had engaged in cybersquatting and unfair competition by grabbing the web address inspectorgadget.net, the lawsuit says. (He also has the address inspectorgadget.us.)

The Inspector Gadget television shows are included in a library of nearly 6,000 half-hour episodes of television features owned by Cookie Jar, which also has trademarks to audiovisual media and other products for such famous names as Care Bears, Arthur, Strawberry Shortcake and Doodlebops.