A Dallas restaurant is suing a newcomer to the city with a similar name.
Julian Barsotti owns Carbone’s on Oak Lawn Avenue. He says the Italian restaurant is named after his great grandfather, a first-generation Italian American.
“[It’s] really paying homage to that type of food and using our proud familial history as a point of inspiration,” Barsotti said.
He says Carbone's, which opened in 2012, spent the past 10 years making a name for itself. Now, the name itself is at the center of a legal food fight.
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“It’s been mass confusion on all levels,” Barsotti said.
The controversy is over another Italian restaurant, Carbone, that opened three months ago, two miles away, with one letter difference in the name.
Barsotti says people with reservations for Carbone are showing up at Carbone's, leaving reviews for the wrong restaurant, and dialing the wrong place, too. They've kept a log, he says, of the 1,400 confused customers who've called.
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He says vendors have tried to deliver orders to his restaurant that were meant for Carbone.
He even says a local grocery store displayed Carbone's logo and story next to Carbone sauces. A photo of the display is included in a lawsuit Carbone’s filed this week against Carbone for trademark infringement.
“If you could have one snapshot of something that, to me, that is evidence of complete confusion, it would be that picture,” Barsotti said.
Chris Schwegmann, a trademark litigator in Dallas who’s not involved in the case says cases typically hinge on proving people are confused.
“But if you look at the complaint here there are so many examples,” Schwegmann said. “What will make or break this case is one or the other of the parties showing that they used Carbone or Carbone’s first in commerce.”
Carbone, which opened in New York in 2013, now has five locations worldwide.
The Dallas Morning News, which broke news of the lawsuit, reports Carbone has a federal trademark and another that’s pending.
Carbone parent company Major Food Group has not responded to media requests for comment.
“All we want is to keep our name in the state of Texas and have the ability to sell our products in the state of Texas,” Barsotti said.
Read the full lawsuit below or click here to open it in a new window.
