Legal News

Tavern On The Green: The Last Hurrah

By Suzanne Sataline

New Yorkers, are you looking for a place to bring in the new year? We suggest the world-famous Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park, which will close tonight.

It’s a beautiful site with a rich history, and, best of all, the closing has been marked by serious legal tension, as WSJ today reports.

Tavern is losing its license with the city after more than 30 years. Another local restaurateur will operate an eatery there, instead. That prompted the Tavern owners to declare bankruptcy, which has unleashed a bar fight over the Tavern name.

Lawyers for the LeRoy family, which opened the celebrity hangout and tourist haven in 1976, say the family trademarked the name in 1978, using it on the restaurant and later, a bottled salad dressing. The estimated value of the moniker, they say, is $19 million, and the company's biggest asset.

But city officials are clearly nervous that the LeRoy family may capitalize on the Tavern brand, starting restaurants in Miami or, perhaps, elsewhere in New York. Lawyers with the city of New York have asserted in federal court that Warner LeRoy never had the city's permission to trademark the name and that he obtained the name fraudulently.

The city further asserts that it acquired prior rights under state common law and points out that a restaurant has operated on the premises since 1934 and that the operator previous to the LeRoys also called the place "Tavern on the Green."

It's curious, though, that earlier this year, when the city sought proposals for a new operator of the premises, the RFP said the city "does not represent that it owns the name `Tavern on the Green,''' and added that the license seeker that wished to continue to use this name should "be prepared to pursue its availability independently.''

Gerald Singleton, the city's senior counsel, said in a statement: “The RFP merely acknowledges that there is a dispute over the trademark. Trademark rights are acquired by use, not registration, and no owner is required by law to register trademarks. The City has supervised the restaurant since 1934 — well before the LeRoys came on the scene. The risk is on the person who adopts a mark already in use.”

The Tavern's legal team, from Akerman Senterfitt, is staying mum.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 31, 2009 (boomark / email).