RBC Bearings Announces the United States Patent & Trademark Office Granted Nine Additional Trademarks Related to the Nice ® Bearing Product Line

OXFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 23, 2018-- RBC Bearings Incorporated (Nasdaq: ROLL), a leading international manufacturer of highly-engineered precision bearings and components for the industrial, defense and aerospace industries, today announced the United States Patent & Trademark Office granted the Company the following additional nine trademark registrations related to its NICE ® bearing product line; 1621 ®, 1630 ®, 1635 ®, 1641 ®, along with the 600 Series ®, 1600 Series ®, 6900 Series ®, 7500 Series ® and 7600 Series ®. This adds to the 4 trademarks registrations previously granted; 400 Series ®, 500 Series ®, 3000 Series ® and 5000 Series ® and compliments the already expansive portfolio of common law trademarks the Company owns in the individual four digit designations for products within each of these Series.

Over 100 years ago William Nice founded one of the first anti-friction bearing manufacturing plants. Over the last several decades the NICE ® bearing designations, such as 607 ™, 1616 ™, 1621 ®, 1623 ™, 1630®, 1635 ®, 1641 ®, 7512 ™, along with the 400 Series ®, 500 Series ®, 600 Series ®, 1600 Series ®, 3000 Series ®, 5000 Series, ® 6900 Series ®, 7500 Series ® and 7600 Series ® trademarks have acquired distinctiveness to the NICE ® bearing business and qualify as the only unique identifier of genuine high quality NICE ® bearings that has been acknowledged by the bearing industry. These trademarks guaranty that our customers are getting the unique source of bearings products, namely the original high quality NICE ® bearing products.

General Counsel Thomas J. Williams stated “With the granting of these additional trademark registrations by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, RBC Bearings will continue its program with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection against trademark infringers and counterfeiters who attempt to pass off their goods as genuine NICE ® products. This program has already produced beneficial results and interception of counterfeit products."