Multiple parties are sniffing around the auction of trademarks and other assets associated with Firedog, the tech-support business of Circuit City Stores Inc. (CCTYQ) before the chain shut all of its stores earlier this year.

"We are having dialogues with multiple parties," said Gabe Fried, managing member of Streambank LLC, which was hired in April to help sell some of the consumer-electronics retailer's intellectual property assets.

The court handling Circuit City's bankruptcy case set an Aug. 11 deadline for bids ahead of the Aug. 18 auction. The sale is part of Circuit City's liquidation of assets as it tries to pay back creditors.

Firedog isn't an operating business now but was the No. 2 installation brand in the U.S., behind Best Buy Co.'s (BBY) Geek Squad, serving 800,000 customers a year before it was shut down, Streambank said. Many of the firm's service technicians were contract workers, but assets include rights to brand-related Web site addresses and toll-free telephone numbers, as well as business plans and a transaction database.

Firedog probably received more marketing investment in recent years than any other service brand besides Geek Squad, which could make it an attractive opportunity for newcomers to the services market, Fried said. "We're optimistic about what's going to happen," he said.

Streambank was also involved in the May 11 auction that resulted in Systemax Inc. (SYX) paying $14 million for Circuit City's Web site and other e-commerce assets. Systemax, which sells consumer electronics through its CompUSA and Tiger Direct brands, has been operating the revamped Circuit City site since mid-June.

Fried wouldn't disclose any of the parties involved in talks, but said Firedog assets could appeal to information-technology services businesses expanding into the small-office and home-office businesses, or to consumer-electronics retailers looking to get into the services side. Companies that franchise other types of home services but want to add tech support or installation are among other types of potential bidders, he said.

"There are publicly traded companies, there are private companies, and there are some foreign companies who operate sort of a Firedog-like service in other countries who are looking at this as well," he said.

Circuit City rolled out the Firedog brand in 2006 as it made a fresh push into installation and services, and Firedog was one of the retailer's few growing businesses as product sales faltered.

Given the economy, many potential buyers have been "basically sitting tight" up to now, Fried said, "which is why we set up the auction deadline."

Still, he figures Firedog offered services that can remain in demand in tough times. "If the installation business is off because new product sales are down, you still can get a lot of revenue on the support side because people are constantly looking for help" with computers and other electronics, he said.

Best Buy's services business posted a 2% increase in same-store sales during the May 30-ended quarter, even as companywide sales fell 6.2% on a same-store basis.

-By Mary Ellen Lloyd, Dow Jones Newswires, 704-948-9145; maryellen.lloyd@dowjones.com