Jason’s Restaurant Forced to Rename to J. Liu’s

By: Walker

8 Comments

• 

  Andrew Hall January 14, 2009 9:05 pm

  Paging a competent trademark atty …

  A.
• 

  swampkitty January 14, 2009 9:33 pm

  Hate, hate, hate all the corporate bullying going on.

  The same thing happened to MiMi Cafe, my favorite Vietnamese sandwich and pho joint in town – they’ve had the name longer than Mimi’s Cafe (the Bob Evans corporate owned restaurant), but were forced to change their name to MiLi Cafe because Bob Evans threatened to sue.

  They didn’t have enough money to fight it since it’s literally a mom and pop run restaurant, and had to replace all of their signs, menus, etc. at a considerable cost to them.
• 

  somertimeoh January 14, 2009 9:35 pm

  Jason’s Deli’s food sucks and now I know their people suck too. How ridiculous :(
• 

  Andrew Hall January 14, 2009 9:53 pm

  I have no use for corporate eateries, but saving money by not getting a competent trademark attorney is idiotic when it costs you in the long run. If you have an obvious name like ‘MiMi’ or ‘Jason,’ it is well worth spending a few bucks to talk to an atty who can do the appropriate searches and advise.

  These conflicts are winnable, if you have engaged in proactive planning. If MiMi, for example, had done the relatively cheap prelim work, they would either picked a better name (eg MiMi’s Vietnamese Cafe) or had the basis for a defense demonstrating no brand confusion.

  From a corporate perspective the problem is not specifics like a one-off Jason’s or MiMi’s, If you don’t defend your trademark consistently, you risk loss when you encounter a true knock-off. While the reality of such a case is fairly small, the fear of it informs the legal planning of every trademark stakeholder.

  A.
• 

  nexttuesday January 15, 2009 9:25 am

  Sucks for them. I’m just taking property now, so I can’t comment on the trademark status. It does seems like Jason’s Bar and Restaurant is a lot different than Jason’s Deli though.
• 

  Lanibug65 January 20, 2009 1:36 pm

  Look up the original Burger King in Mattoon, IL — it has been around since the late 40′s or early 50′s — they actually fought and won (at least part of the battle) against the giant – and let me tell you the burgers are soooooo much better…. Just takes being willing to fight!
• 

  eleslie0 April 5, 2009 4:11 pm

  J Liu (formerly Jason’s) has been a staple to the BriHi District in Historic Dublin.  It was sad to see the sudden and abrupt change..many of the biz owners in our association (Historic Dublin Business Association) were very vocal in their displeasure…but the law is the law, and the trademark claims were very clearly in favor of Jason’s Deli.

  The new Worthington location will be called J Liu’s as well, from what i’ve heard.
• 

  shroud April 6, 2009 9:07 am

  Yeah, the signage for the Worthington location all changed over a month or two back now.

  While it really stinks that he had to go through the expense of rebranding everything, I do think J. Liu’s is a much more interesting name than “Jason’s” – so hopefully it works out better for them in the long run.