Results tagged “trademark”

Would a Tavern on the Green by any other name fare just as well in Central Park? The NY Times digs into the latest debate over the restaurant's name, which is reportedly appraised at $19 million.

A German entrepreneur is applying for a federal trademark to use the Freedom Tower to market a line of condoms; the proposed slogan would be "Freedom Tower: Make Love Not War." What, was "Grind Zero" taken? The Post says 9/11 families are "howling" over the proposed rubber, though they only get a quote from Jack Lynch, whose firefighter son died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001: "I find it very offensive. The idea that anyone would use something associated with 9/11 to promote any product is upsetting. But to promote condoms, that goes a step beyond." According to the article, the Port Authority, which owns the tower, is "scrambling to block" the application. If he does get the patent, the entrepreneurial German better hope his prophylactic resembles the Freedom Tower in name only, because so far nobody's been able to get that building up. Hey-oh!

Brooklyn Brewery found themselves in an unlikely battle recently against the Trappist monks of Belgium. Who, apparently, you do NOT mess with. CityRoom reports that BB owner Steve Hindy started making a refermented ale called Brooklyn Local 1, which borrowed a method from the monks. But the problem was in the design of the bottle he used for it: "an amber bottle design featuring a double embossed ring at the base of the neck. It was not unlike the single-ringed bottle used by the Westmalle Abbey in Belgium and by the New Belgium Brewing Company of Fort Collins, Colo." First his friend Kim Jordan, owner of the New Belgium, warned him of her "protracted negotiations with the monks of Westmalle on the use of a ringed bottle in the United States...She told him it was her duty under the partnership to defend the trademark." Hindy soon backed down, took a loss of $60K and noted of the monks: “God is on their side." However, it looks like the press images that got out there still include the old design. Developing... like dark clouds of a wrathful God.

Justice was meted out swiftly yesterday in the case of Pfizer vs. the Long Island Viagra enthusiast who gets his kicks cruising around Manhattan with a 25-foot decommissioned missile emblazoned with the priceless message 'Viva Viagra.' Yesterday we learned that the man, 48-year-old Arye Sachs, had no trouble getting the missile in and out of Manhattan through the tunnels because police were just so tickled by the gag. Not amused, of course, were the suits at Pfizer who, instead dismissing their overpaid marketing staff and hiring the obviously inspired Sachs, unleashed the lawyers. Now Sachs has to find a way to fill the empty hours that doesn't involve promoting a pharmaceutical company. And it gets worse—the humorless judge also ordered Sachs to abandon his hilarious plan to distribute politically-themed Viagra condoms. What's next—no more sidesplitting Viagra joke emails???

West Babylon's Arye Sachs, age 48, has a simple hobby: cruising Manhattan with a 25-foot-long missile emblazoned with the slogan, "Viva Viagra." But his love for that inexhaustible fount of Viagra comedy has now landed him in legal trouble, as the company is suing him in federal court for illegal use of their logo, which they noticed on his missile when he repeatedly drove past Viagra headquarters in midtown. Sachs explained his pastime to the judge yesterday: "Once in a while you want to have fun, and that's what it's all about: fun." He also revealed that he got the missile in and out of Manhattan via the Midtown Tunnel, where, on September 8th, police laughed and saluted when they saw him. Got that terrorists? Missiles in the tunnel are a-okay, but don't you dare mess with our corporate logos.

New York State is trying to re-establish ownership of its "I [Heart] NY" slogan/graphic, despite the fact that it's become practically a de facto part of the public domain since its introduction 31 years ago in 1977. The state is currently reinvigorating the slogan to promote day-trip tourism within the state.

As The Big Apple adopts a new "green" logo, Apple (purveyor of iThings) is turning red. Wired reports that the emblem for New York City's GreeNYC campaign "shows a stylized apple with a stalk and a leaf. It bears a resemblance to Apple's famous logo -- a resemblance Apple says infringes on its trademark."