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Chef?s Lawsuit Against a Former Assistant Is Settled Out of Court

PETE WELLS The owner and chef of a Greenwich Village seafood restaurant has settled the lawsuit she brought against her former sous-chef after he opened a restaurant that she said was a ?total plagiarism? of her own. The chef, Rebecca Charles of Pearl Oyster Bar, had accused her former assistant, Edward McFarland, of copying ?each and every element? of her restaurant, including the white marble bar, the color scheme and the Caesar salad recipe when he and his partners opened Ed?s Lobster Bar in SoHo. Both sides in the case agreed to keep the terms of the settlement confidential. The case, brought last June, was avidly followed in the hospitality business because it cited principles of intellectual property law, including trade secrets and trade dress ? the kind of tactic more commonly used by large corporations than by restaurants like Pearl, a tiny storefront on Cornelia Street known for urbane takes on lobster rolls, chowder and other New England clam-shack standbys.

Full post as published by The Trade Secrets Vault on April 19, 2008 (boomark / email).