The Tavern on the Green Name Game

The City announced two weeks ago that it would be fighting the Tavern on the Green operators for the use of the TOTG name, valued at $19 million. And yesterday, the official filing hit bankruptcy court. It's an interesting grab, given the city has been saying all year that the owners would keep the name and that the name was one of the restaurant's biggest assets when it showed up in bankruptcy court in September. Another interesting part in this: the current operators tradmarked the name in '84, and, "under the provisions of federal law, after six years that filing could not be contested." Even though Robert Moses may have come up with the name in '34, the city never made the necessary moves claim it.

But all that aside, city lawyers an bigwigs, why you gotta hit these guys when they're down? They have so little; let them walk away with some dignity.
· A $19 Million Question [NYT]