Please note: Jay Plumeri's Jones has become Jonez, following a run-in with the Trademark office.
UPDATE: Someone very closely affiliated with the restauarant writes us, lending some clarity to the situation:
Jay actually did do a search and found that nobody was using the name Jones. It turns out that somebody trademarked the name more than 6 years ago and is NOT using it. This somebody came after us like a wounded bull. Although there is a defined time period you have on exclusive ownership of a mark that is not used, we still would need to spend a lot of time in court tryng to disprove the wounded bull's intent of using it at all....??Olé!
Jay decided that spending thousands of $ in court, wasting all this time and energy fighting, just wasn't worth it. Even if we were advised that we could win. Jay is approaching his one year anniversay of being in business on Greenwich Avenue and he is more interested in getting the best filet for the restaurant than he is fighting some mean spirited bull in court.
So the moral of the story is that it is important to choose your battles, do the right thing every day, and above all be respectful of everyone that has the courage to be in the hospitality/restaurant business in New York City. The bull can keep his mark, and Jay will keep his dignity.
Jones photo (left) courtesy of Gothamist.
