After Eater revealed last week that chef Daniel Boulud's newest venture, a Bowery restaurant to open sometime next year, would carry the name DBGB—not to mention a logo suspiciously similar to that of shuttered Bowery rock venue CBGB—we figured the fine folks behind CBGB might have something to say about the matter. So we called Brett Green, CBGB's lawyer for the better part of the last decade, who cheerily dropped the hammer.
"We absolutely did [see the Eater post]," Green said. "Immediately after we read that on your site, a cease and desist letter was sent to Boulud. It’s all very amusing—almost. I cannot tell you how many emails we got saying, have you seen this? People were telling us it was an obvious copyright infringement—but what it actually is, is a trademark infringement. We were aghast that not only they would use name so similar but that they would use what’s become known as the CBGB font. We were even more shocked that they clearly didn’t contact us first because they probably knew how we’d react. We haven’t heard back from them, but if they plan to pursue using that name, my client will take every legal action possible to prevent from happening." So, yeah, there's that.
An even more amusing parallel, noted by Eater commenters and other bloggers, is that it was just a month or so ago that Boulud Inc. sent a trademark-infringement claim to Forest Hills restaurant db Wine Bar & Kitchen, run by local restaurateur Danny Brown. We've got a call into Mr. Brown for his take on this little kerfuffle. Please stand by.
· Boulud on Bowery: DBGB Shall Be the New CBGB! [~E~]
· A B and a D in Boulud Group's Bonnet [BruniBlog]
· Daniel Boulud is Pure Evil [Queens Central]
