Intellectual Property Law

Local Media Spotlight Restaurant Trade Dress Trial

By Michael Atkins

The Peso’s vs. Matador restaurant ripoff case starts Monday.

The lawsuit, which Peso?s Kitchen and Lounge owners El Diablo, Inc., and Brian Hutmacher filed against Mel-Opp & Griff LLC and the other owners of competing Tex-Mex restaurant The Matador, accuses the latter of copying the former’s distinctive menu and decor. (Previous STL coverage here and here.)

The local media has glommed onto the story, with an article in the Seattle Weekly and a spot on KING-TV (video, text).

KingTV’s shot of The Matador in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

The Weekly story has nice color:

“On Super Bowl Sunday 2004, Brian Hutmacher wasn’t thinking about the point spread or Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction. He was staring at the metallic, Mexican-inspired decor of the just-opened Matador restaurant in Ballard, thinking it looked a lot like his own wildly popular tequila-and-nachos late-night hangout, Peso’s.

“Then he saw the menu. The main entree page had 11 items. ‘Eight of those 11 items are identical in name, description, price, and preparation to what is on the menu at Peso’s,’ Hutmacher later wrote in a 20-page, obscenity-laced letter to one of Matador’s owners.”

The trial should be colorful, too.

It will be decided by King County Superior Court Catherine Schaffer without a jury.

The case cite is El Diablo, Inc. v. Mel-Opp & Griff LLC, No. 07-2-01203-6 SEA (King County Super.).

Full post as published by Seattle Trademark Lawyer on September 13, 2008 (boomark / email).