Fed-Up Chef Sues Over Menu Infringement

Rebecca Charles, the proprietor and chef of Manhattan’s West Village seafood restaurant, Pearl Oyster Bar, is taking a fellow restaurateur to court over the infringement of intellectual property. She says Ed McFarland of Ed’s Lobster Bar in SoHo, has knocked-off “each and every element” of her restaurant, from interior design elements to actual menu items.

In recent years, a handful of chefs and restaurateurs have invoked intellectual property concepts, including trademarks, patents and trade dress — the distinctive look and feel of a business — to defend their restaurants, their techniques and even their recipes, but most have stopped short of a courtroom. The Pearl Oyster Bar suit may be the most aggressive use of those concepts by the owner of a small restaurant. Some legal experts believe the number of cases will grow as chefs begin to think more like chief executives.

Many restaurants are inspired and spawned by likes of other eateries, as are menu items, interior design and aspects of ambience. However in a place like Manhattan where restaurants cover the island like sand on a beach, competition is fierce. And when “inspired-by” and “ripped-off” become synonymous, it seems that filing a lawsuit is the new black.

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