Skee-Ball Manufacturer Sues Williamsburg Skee-Ball Bar Full Circle

(Courtesy Full Circle)

The company that manufactures Skee-Ball—the dull, repetitive game beloved by children and inebriated simpletons—is going after the Skee-Ball themed Williamsburg bar Full Circle, filing a lawsuit against the owners for trademark infringement. Full Circle has three Skee-Ball games, and owners Eric Pavony and Evan Tobias also founded a "Brewskee-Ball" League in 2005, after obtaining verbal permission from Skee-Ball, Inc. during a meeting with the company's CEO in Pennsylvania. But now it seems Skee-Ball has had a change of heart.

According to court documents, Pavony and Tobias were subsequently contacted by Skee-Ball reps in 2010, after the company saw how they'd popularized the game with their Brewskee-Ball league. The Full Circle owners say Skee-Ball wanted to work with them, and the two parties entered into a confidentiality agreement in order to discuss a collaboration. But a month later, Full Circle was served with a cease and desist letter, claiming that the bar's owners were violating Skee-Ball's trademark on the word skee-ball.

It's unclear what kind of damages Skee-Ball is seeking, but we hope whatever settlement is reached gets paid out in little tickets that can be redeemed for a Walkman. Robert Harkins, an attorney for Full Circle, tells us the bar "is not infringing on any valid Skee-Ball trademark. And there is no other way to describe a skee-ball machine that a normal person would understand, except to call it a skee-ball machine. So to have a company basically claim that you can't call the machines you own by their name is not legally proper, and it's not even good business."

Harkins has filed a motion to have the lawsuit dropped, arguing that Full Circle's use "constitutes fair use... particularly because Full Circle has only owned and used skee-ball games manufactured by SBI." It's a mystery why Skee-Ball decided to come after Full Circle after exploring a partnership, but a source familiar with the bar notes that the cease-and-desist letter came soon after Skee-Ball hired a marketing company based in San Francisco, where the lawsuit was originally filed. Harkins successfully got the lawsuit transferred to Brooklyn Federal Courtskee.

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By John Del Signore in Food on January 3, 2012 4:10 PM

Comments [rss]

Norik

If anyone here actually went to this bar, they'd realize it's probably the least hipster of any bar in the neighborhood.

dogbertt

It's tough times for hipsters, fo shizzle

ThereAreNoActorsInThisFilm

the world is out to get them! wahwah

Harmonization

Who hates Skee-Ball? I mean, really. What other game rewards you with tickets that can be redeemed for parachute men and spider rings?

Roark

I have no love for Skee-ball

In High school I worked at a chuckiecheese type place - I had to repair those machines constantly. Screaming greedy kids wanting tickets with no patience for the thing to get fixed.
Now those same kids are in their 20s acting the same except they are drunk and their parents are no longer wiping their ass just paying their rent.

Fuck that game

Give me air hockey, pool, or just a good ole fashion arcade game

Harmonization

Yeah, but spider rings.

Roark

A: Dude that's cool
B: Are you being sarcastic man?
A: I don't even know anymore.

Me: Sigh

As clearly the message by Prince "Act your age not your shoe size" was ignored again even in 2012.

Harmonization

*giggles*

RevWaldo

| the dull, repetitive game beloved by children and inebriated simpletons

Wow, sounds like some journalist really sucks at skee-ball, or had a sister that always got more tickets.

PhotoHarris

Skee-Ball is one greedy company. Two thumbs down!

BottomlessChips

Why do we laugh at property, copyright and trademark law, JDS? Isn't it what separates us from anarchy?

Don't they teach the value of protecting trademarks in similar cases in any ____ Law 101 course in this country? Even if it's one lowly bar, you have to nip it in the bud.

Politburo

Yeah, it's trademark law separating us from the monkeys...

BottomlessChips

Because I said monkeys...?

Politburo

Sorry, forgot everything is hyper-literal with you.

BottomlessChips

No, I'm sorry. I forgot that you think every comment you make is an audition to be a staff writer on a quirky, satirical TV show.

Gwen Dibley

I like JDS most of the time, but I fucking hate it when he reduces something to (usually) two categories with the sole intention of telling EVERYONE who might like said thing that they're basically an idiot. It's such a lazy, loser-ish way to alienate readers. Cool it with the smugness, JDS, lest someone submit an article to Gothamist detailing some of your insane and perverse diversions.