California Group Sues Big Foot Lodge Owner... Options

[tugboatwa]

http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/...e.aspx?id=39311

California Group Sues Big Foot Lodge Owner

ANDY MEEK | The Daily News

THERE’S THE BEEF: Big Foot Lodge co-owner Shawn Danko holds the Sasquatch Burger in front of his Downtown restaurant’s Sasquatch statue. -- FILE PHOTO

A California-based restaurant ownership group has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee against two Memphis restaurant owners who operate a similar restaurant concept here.

The lawsuit was filed Friday, according to The Daily News Online, www.memphisdailynews.com.

In the suit, the creators of The Bigfoot Lodge restaurant concept in California – which includes such interior features as a log cabin design and a large Sasquatch statue – claim husband and wife Shawn and Lana Danko inappropriately used the restaurant name and similar design elements, among other things, for the Big Foot Lodge restaurant and bar they opened in Memphis in 2005.

The Dankos’ Big Foot eatery likewise includes a log cabin design and a large Sasquatch statue, among other similarities.

“I don’t have a comment for you at this time,” Shawn Danko told The Daily News when asked about the lawsuit Monday. “It just came over the wire today, so I couldn’t comment for you at this point.”
Larger implications

BA2 LLC is the entity that in 1999 opened The Bigfoot Lodge in California while at the time operating under the name The Bigfoot Lodge LLC. In the suit filed against the Dankos by BA2 LLC, a copy of a June 2005 Memphis Business Journal article is attached in which Shawn Danko says the inspiration for his own restaurant’s name came from the California Bigfoot Lodge lounge and bar.

In an interview with The Daily News last year, Danko said his Memphis restaurant concept was developed over a period of several years. He said the idea grew in large part out of his fascination with the ape-like creature known as Big Foot.

“The Big Foot concept stems back to seven years ago now, when I was working at the Hard Rock Café,” Danko said at the time. “It was a concept that I was slowly working on over time and it was a concept that I always kind of had in the back of my head.”

Now the concept is at the center of a legal dispute whose plaintiff sees an opportunity for confusion to exist on multiple fronts. One of them involves a major Hollywood film scheduled to be released next month.

A full-sized replica of the Bigfoot Lodge’s Los Angeles bar was built on a sound stage as the setting for some scenes in the film “Yes Man,” scheduled to be released next month and starring Jim Carrey, according to the lawsuit. The suit also includes a message thread taken from the local Internet message board run by Goner Records.

“As one post on the Memphis-based message board hosted by Goner Records asks, ‘Is this [Big Foot Lodge Memphis] associated with the Bigfoot in (Los Angeles and San Francisco)?? Anybody know?” reads the reference to the Memphis message board included with the suit.

“Another (Goner) user responds, ‘Same thing, I think.’ Plaintiff is informed and believes that once Warner Bros.’ Jim Carrey movie ‘Yes Man’ opens nationwide on December 19, 2008, many more people will be actually confused into thinking that Defendants’ Big Foot Lodge Memphis is associated with Plaintiff’s Bigfoot Lodge LA and Bigfoot Lodge SF.”

[billgreen2005big...]

this new article is very interesting funny & makeing me feel hungrey thanks bill

[RedRatSnake]

Hi

Hey ! it's the bigfoot burger guy I really do have to laugh at this kind of thing, The restaurants are what like 1,800 miles apart, My extreme traveling range for a dinner has to max out at about 40 miles one way, I would not expect a mass exodus from any one restaurant to upset the daily cash flow of the other, I have to be missing something here

Peace
Tim

[AlbertaSasquatch]

Ya, its called greed!

[trinity]

I hit the LA Lodge 2-3 times a month... they don't even sell food there, just good drinks. Obviously hoping for more business after December 19th. My friend Danielle is in the movie (the tall thin girl)...and she's unsure of Bigfoots existance...but a dang good bartender!

trin

[Tirademan]

Yeah, I checked it out when they first opened in 1999. Basically your dark Hollywood bar kind of thing. It has a nice "state park log cabin visitor center" type of interior, but was almost completely lacking when it came to the squatch subject. I think they had a couple of statues and some other little things, but by no means was it sasquatch-centric. I think the 2 guys who started it traveled a lot in Nor Cal and just liked the motif up there. It doesn't seem that they were into the squatch subject in any way. Their sign looks like a state park sign. I'm pretty sure they sold the place, so I don't know what has changed since then, or if the new owners have added any info about the big guy. (after looking at the photos below it doesn't seem so.)

So in my hyper-critical manner, I do kind of bag on the place for just using the name and not backing it up with any substance! But it is a nice looking bar...

http://www.bigfootlodge.com/LAhome.html

tirademan

ps- In terms of them challenging the name, they HAVE TO. If you don't challenge an unauthorized use of your trademark, you show disregard for that mark, and it can be legally appropriated from you. So yeah, lawyers, er lawmakers built-in "billable hours" to trademark law way back when. "Hey, if you sue my client, I get paid too!" Genius...

[karirush]

Whatever happened with this? I really can't believe that they tried to sue over this. It is rediculous!
I am a local at the lodge and have to tell you that Big Foot has the absolute best cocktail I have ever had... The Sasquatch! If you are ever in the area, stop on by and give it a try. They also make this unbelievable one called the girl scout cookie, or something like that. It tastes like the thin mints! It is perfect for an after dinner drink/dessert.

Kari
California Vacation