Austin-based Landry Distillery will have the ability to hold its identify after a Harris County jury discovered the corporate was not infringing on the trademark of Landry’s, Inc., the Houston-based hospitality firm owned by billionaire Tilman Fertitta.
The jury dominated Monday that the distillery’s use of Landry in its enterprise identify didn’t trigger a chance of confusion with Landry’s, Inc. logos, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.
The lawsuit was filed in March 2023 by Landry’s, Inc. The corporate claimed the distillery had knowingly used the identify “Landry” to revenue from the popularity of the hospitality firm, which owns eating places, casinos and leisure venues such because the Downtown Aquarium and Kemah Boardwalk.
“Zach Landry, realizing the fortuitous circumstances of getting the identical final identify because the well-known, nationally acknowledged, Landry’s household of firms determined to capitalize on it,” Landry’s, Inc. argued in its lawsuit. “The shortage of a possessive type within the Landry Distillery label doesn’t separate the general industrial impression of the labeling from [Landry’s, Inc].”
In response, the distillery argued that precedent protected using a household surname and that its branding was distinctly completely different than that of Landry’s, Inc.
“Landry [Distillery] has adopted branding based mostly on horse-racing imagery in a muted sepia tone,” the distillery argued in an October 2024 movement. “Plaintiffs’ [Landry’s, Inc.] branding is colourful and glitzy. … Landry has finished nothing to breed, copy or imitate Plaintiffs’ marks. He doesn’t use the possessive type of his identify.”
Landry Distillery was based by Lowell Zachary Landry in 2021. In response to courtroom paperwork, he was named after his grandfather who had a ardour for quarter-horse racing.
Downtown Aquarium Houston Fb web page
Hospitality firm Landry’s, Inc. was based in Katy in 1980 and is at the moment owned by Fertitta, who serves because the chairman, president and CEO of the corporate. Landry’s, Inc. owns a number of dozen eating places, gaming and hospitality manufacturers, together with Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Joe’s Crab Shack and King Ranch Texas Kitchen.
Fertitta additionally owns the NBA’s Houston Rockets and was not too long ago introduced as President-elect Donald Trump’s potential choose for ambassador to Italy.
In an announcement to Houston Public Media, Landry’s, Inc. stated it could be exploring the potential for interesting.
“Naturally, we’re disillusioned within the jury’s resolution,” stated Steve Scheinthal, common counsel for Landry’s, Inc. “As in any case the place proof is excluded from the jury, we imagine the result would doubtless have been completely different had the jury been allowed to think about the excluded proof. Furthermore, the decide instructed the jury by relying upon an outdated 86-year-old Texas Supreme Court docket case that was determined earlier than the present realities of web and tv. It was clear to each us and america Patent and Trademark Workplace that the defendants’ proposed use was confusingly much like our federally registered identify. Presently, we’re evaluating our rights on attraction”
Landry Distillery didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
