Along Route 248, a few miles south of Danielsville, there is a service station and mini-mart called 5-Eleven on the east side of the highway.

The large sign on the building bears a striking resemblance to the signs on 7-Eleven stores.Too much of a resemblance, says 7-Eleven, which has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Allentown alleging trademark infringement, unfair competition and trademark dilution by the Lehigh Township business.The lawsuit filed by the Dallas corporation on May 2 not only seeks that the name of the gas station be changed, but that 7-Eleven be awarded "three times all profits wrongfully derived by defendants," in addition to 7-Eleven's costs and attorney's fees.It also asks the court to order destruction of "all labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, receptacles and advertisement in its possession bearing the 5-Eleven name or mark, 5-Eleven striped mark" or any imitation of such.The defendants in the case are 5-Eleven Gas & Convenience Store Inc., doing business as 5-Eleven, and Sukhjender S. Goraya.The address of the 5-Eleven store is listed as 3751 Lehigh Drive, Northampton.According to the suit, 7-Eleven was founded in 1946, and today the firm has more than 7,000 convenience stores throughout the United States.The trademark of 7-Eleven, says the suit, consists of the store's signage being a multicolored green, white, red and orange display, featuring an Arabic numeral "7" displayed in orange and red, followed by the word "eleven" displayed in green block letters.It says the 5-Eleven store has the Arabic numeral "5" in orange with the word "eleven" displayed in green block letters.The lawsuit alleges, "On information and belief, defendants adopted the 5-Eleven name and mark, and 5-Eleven striped mark, for convenience store services in order to trade upon the fame and goodwill represented by 7-Eleven's ... trade identities."It continues that the use of the 5-Eleven name and mark "falsely and deceptively represents that the defendants' convenience store services and products emanate from 7-Eleven, or are connected with, sponsored, or approved by 7-Eleven," creating confusion and deception.The five counts listed in the lawsuit are federal trademark infringement, federal unfair competition, Pennsylvania common law unfair competition, federal trademark dilution and Pennsylvania trademark dilution.