SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California made a ruling on Aug. 28 that addresses several issues raised in a Tadich Grill “trademark infringement, cybersquatting and false designation of origin” lawsuit.
Tadich Grill, Inc. (TGI) filed a lawsuit against Tadich Grill Development Co. LLC (TGDC), ICON Inc., ICONcepts LLC, Gerard Centioli and Lauren Centioli.
“This case involves a restaurant deal gone sour,” the order said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley
| Northern California District Court
The court said TGDC asked it to order the parties to participate in mediation and to halt the lawsuit proceedings in the meantime, the TGDC defendants are seeking dismissal of the TGI’s complaint, as well as a stay, and TGI is requested a preliminary injunction against further infringement.
In the ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley approved the request for arbitration of TGI’s claims and granted a related stay. The judge also partially imposed the preliminary injunction requested by the plaintiff. The case dismissal motion was denied.
The injunction specifically prohibits the defendants “from making any modifications to the website pending resolution on the merits, except in response to reasonable requests by plaintiff to update basic business information concerning the San Francisco restaurant’s hours of operation and menu changes,” the order said.
According to the ruling, TGI operates a restaurant in San Francisco, and its application for a 10-year renewal of a trademark on the Tadich Grill name was granted on June 19, 2017. Meanwhile, the court said TDGC was established in 2009 by TGI’s owner and ICONcepts to run Tadich Grill restaurants in other locations.
Gerard Centioli serves as TGDC and ICON’s president and chief executive officer. His son Lauren Centioli serves as ICON’s treasurer and secretary.
The order said a license agreement between the parties was terminated in September 2017 by TGI following TGDC’s alleged failure to make required payments, and a restaurant management agreement was terminated because TDGC allegedly did not “reimburse Tadich Grill Inc. for the salary and benefits (including the employment taxes and other related employment costs paid) for the replacement local manager for the original Tadich Grill.”
“Plaintiff sent defendants a cease-and-desist letter on March 12, 2018, demanding that TGDC: (i) ‘cease and desist from all current and future uses of the Tadich Grill name,’ (ii) ‘take down the website, tadichgrill.com, which per publicly available records, TGDC is the registrant organization’ and (iii) ‘transfer the domain name, tadichgrill.com, to (TGI),’” the order said.
In addition, the plaintiff claims that TGDC is still using the trademark in question on a failed, bankrupt Tadich Grill restaurant in Washington, D.C.