Dispute Over Rights To Restaurant's Name
The rights to the name of the restaurant became an additional source of contention between the LeRoys and the city of New York during the bankruptcy court procedures in October 2009 after the LeRoys claimed the trademark was theirs while the city challenged them. At the time the trademark was appraised at $19 million. In November 2009, Poll registered a backup name with New York State: Tavern in the Park.
In March 2010, Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that the trade name was owned by the City of New York and that Warner LeRoy had trademarked the name “fraudulently” in 1981. She wrote: “Because the undisputed facts show that the city established and continuously maintained a restaurant under the name ‘Tavern on the Green’ at the same location in New York’s Central Park since 1934, the city has a protectable interest in that name.”
Read more about this topic: Tavern On The Green
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