Battle Over Trademark in NOLA

The trademark ST. ROCH MARKET is at the heart of a dispute in New Orleans (aka NOLA).  The City of New Orleans is battling in court with the current lessee of the building associated with the trademark.

ROCH MARKET has been associated with a popular market in New Orleans since 1875. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the market sold fresh seafood. After begin devastated by the hurricane, the City pumped over $3.2 million dollars to transform the place into a food hall with vendors selling seafood, confections, coffee, alcoholic drinks, streetfood, and other food.  Renowned food expert ZAGAT states that it is “An absolute must visit.”  I intend to do so when I visit my friend in NOLA this fall.

Following the renovation, Bayou Secret, LLC leased the building to operate a full service neighborhood restaurant with multiple vendors in a stalls concept.   The company’s sole member Helpful Hound, LLC applied to register the ST. ROCH MARKET mark in April 2017 in connection with food kiosk services and retail vending stand services (Bayou Secret, LLC, and Helpful Hound, LLC and certain individuals associated with the entitityes will collectively be referred to as the “Bayou Secret Parties”).  Because the term ST. ROCH MARKET is descriptive of an actual place, the mark could not be registered on the Principal Register of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  However, registration for the mark was secured on the Supplemental Register at U.S. Reg. No. 5,293,244 based on the mark’s secondary meaning.

The Bayou Secret Parties launched a similar food hall in Miami in April 2018 and planned to expand into Chicago and Nashville.  Within days of each other in April 2018, the City of NOLA and Bayou Secret Parties filed lawsuits against each other.  The Court consolidated the two cases which involve allegations that Bayou Secret Parties infringed the City of NOLA’s trademark, that the famous trademark was being diluted, among others.

The City of NOLA also filed its own application for the ST. ROCH MARKET in April 2018 in connection with the leasing and management of space for food and drink vendors in a public market at Ser. No. 87/890,988.

In August, the City of NOLA and its management company (NOBC) secured a preliminary injunction that barred the Bayou Secret Parties from using the ST. ROCH MARKET mark for food hall locations other than in NOLA and its newly opened food hall in Miami.

The Bayou Secret Parties brought a motion to dismiss on various grounds.  The City of NOLA defeated the motion with the exception of having its claim for trademark dilution dismissed.  The court found the allegation that the mark “is widely recognized by the general consuming public of the United States” was merely conclusory.

Do you think the EATALY® mark associated with food halls would fare better?  (See U.S. Ser. Nos. 3,065,012; 3,567,939).  It might.  The mark is associated with the well known food halls located near the iconic Flatiron building in New York, downtown Chicago and other locations.

Significantly, famous chef Mario Batali is a partner with the Italian owner of the EATALY mark that was first used in Turin, Italy for a food and wine market before traveling to the United States.

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