A licensing company has agreed to pay $1.3 million to use the name Tavern on the Green for restaurants outside metropolitan New York, under a deal approved by Tavern’s bankruptcy trustee.
New York City retained ownership of the name in New York state, Connecticut, New Jersey, and part of Pennsylvania in an earlier settlement. Under a deal approved on Thursday by the trustee, Jill Mazer-Marino, Tavern International can use the name and license it outside that area. The company can also use the name on products, but cannot sell them in the New York area without getting the city’s permission and paying it a royalty, said Gerald E. Singleton, the city’s senior attorney for intellectual property.
Tavern International was set up by Lou Bivona, a financial manager, who will be working with Michael Desiderio, the former chief operating officer of the restaurant. They say they will require licensees to donate a portion of revenues to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which Mr. Bivona has supported for many years.
At one time the name Tavern on the Green was appraised at $19 million, but that was when the LeRoy family, the restaurant’s former owner, thought they owned the trademark and could sell it to the city. A federal judge ruled last year that the city owned the trademark and that Warner LeRoy had obtained it fraudulently.
Source: The New York Times
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