Posted on 04/26/2021 12:09:25 PM PDT by mylife
A legal battle could possibly be avoided between NHL’s Kraken and The Kraken Bar & Lounge in the U-District as Seattle Hockey Partners announced Friday night that it is changing the name of its practice facility restaurant, according to a statement sent to KIRO 7.
The University District punk rock bar said it was suing Seattle’s new hockey team for $3.5 million, accusing it of trademark infringement and alleging that the organization is harming its brand.
According to court documents filed Thursday afternoon, the punk rock bar said the NHL’s new team name, Seattle Kraken, has caused confusion, leading some people to think the bar is affiliated with the team. The suit said owners have been building the brand, creating merchandise and advertising since 2011.
The bar had long been using the name before the NHL decided to bring a team to the Emerald City. Last year in July of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, owners of the dive bar said they were barely hanging on.
Then the NHL announced the name of Seattle’s new hockey team — the Seattle Kraken.
The owners said there was immediate confusion from customers and found the story started getting pushed out online.
“When we can have live music again, touring bands need to be able to find us. We are already buried. It used to be when you look up Seattle Kraken you’d find us. Now it’s impossible,” said Kat Colley, one of the owners of the bar.
Then a couple of weeks ago, the people behind the hockey team announced it’s planning to open a restaurant called “The Kraken Bar & Grill” at the Northgate training facility just over 3 miles away. That pushed the owners of the dive bar to file a lawsuit.
(Excerpt) Read more at kiro7.com ...
If I never hear that word ‘Kraken’ again, it will be too soon.
Yep...
>>Then a couple of weeks ago, the people behind the hockey team announced it’s planning to open a restaurant called “The Kraken Bar & Grill”
it’s like when apple corp. relented and let apple make computers but then apple started to release music online...
The bar doesn’t own that word, do they? All I know is the facility where the Seattle Kraken NHL team will play has been named “Climate Pledge Arena”. So they have that going for them anyway.
“Confusion”?? Between a BAR and a HOCKEY TEAM?
“I was going to a hockey game and all I saw was a bar fight.” Yes, I can see how it would be confusing.
Its retarded. its a win win for both party’s to both use the name and relationship.
now party with me punkers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRp88MU4hOo&t=8s
Climate Pledge Arena....no, really, it's Seattle.
I liked Seattle in 1986 but even then the liberal stink ruined it
Wtf is climate pledge? Who’s pledging? And is this where the carbon offsets go, into investing in arenas for advertising?
If it were an NBA team the settlement would be 100x as large, nobody wants to b affiliated with the NBA.
no-one calls it climate pledge arena
they call the whole place Krak-head area
Once the “The Kraken Bar & Grill” was opened the Punk Rock bar pretty much had to file suit or surrender rights to the name.
They couldn’t suddenly decide ten years later to file suit. Any halfwit lawyer would be able to win that case. ‘Why did you wait so long to file suit’. The suit would be thrown out on the grounds of timeliness.
Seattle Kraken #1
https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:wrqa5v.4.27
Seattle Kraken #2
https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:wrqa5v.4.28
Both filed by hockey team but recently (2020)
I think they should have come to a symbiotic mutual agreement
The hockey team is brand new (not even any players yet). They just recently decided on the name “Kraken”.
You usually don’t have agreements on the matter of Trademarks between a small business and a multimillion-dollar corporation.
The Punk bar is only 3 miles away from the new hockey bar.
The Punk bar has years of prior use of the name. It should be a no brainer for the judge. The Punk bar should win.
The NHL could make the bar a cash offer for the name. Since the bar is in financial trouble it could be mutually beneficial. And that could be what the bar owners had in mind all along.
Kraken is a nice politically neutral name for the Seattle area. Not many ancient Norsemen around to take offence.
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