Bob Schuster and Brad Booke, along with Kris Koski of Cheyenne, Wyoming, have just successfully completed their representation of a Jackson, Wyoming restaurant known as “Bon Appe Thai,” in a federal court trademark infringement action against a Salt Lake City company that operated a restaurant using the name “Bon Appe-Thai.” The Jackson restaurant has been in business since 2008 and obtained a federal trademark registration for “Bon Appe Thai” in 2012.
The Salt Lake City restaurant claimed that it began using “Bon Appe-Thai” before the federal trademark registration was issued and that its use was not infringing because there was no likelihood of confusion among customers, because the restaurants were so distant from one another. Bob and Brad argued that the Jackson restaurant had adopted the “Bon Appe Thai” trademark and had developed common law rights in the trademark for several years before the Salt Lake City restaurant began using the name, and that the substantial amount of commercial traffic between Jackson and Salt Lake City effectively puts both cities within the same geographic market.
The case was settled with the Salt Lake restaurant agreeing to cease its use of “Bon Appe-Thai” and any similar name, and with the Salt Lake restaurant transferring all of its trademark rights, its domain name, and its state of Utah trademark registrations to the owners of the Jackson, Wyoming restaurant.