Two Boston restaurants are in the middle of a legal dispute over a trademark infringement claim due to their business names — both different spellings of the word “savor.”
The plaintiff is Savvor, a Southern and Caribbean restaurant and club in the Leather District that filed a suit against a bistro that opened last year in the Seaport called SAVR.
In the U.S. District filing in May, the plaintiff claims that the opening of a similarly named restaurant has caused “confusion, mistake, and deception” among customers and therefore hurt their business.
The complaint from Savvor described SAVR’s actions as “willful and intentional,” and the plaintiff requested that SAVR be made to change their name on all materials and to pay damages, according to court documents. It also requested for the destruction “of any and all displays, signs, circulars, promotional materials, advertisements, directories, pamphlets, and other materials” using the SAVR mark.
In a counterclaim filed a month later, SAVR argued that the plaintiff has provided no evidence that customers have confused the two restaurants over their names. SAVR also noted that their name is followed by “Spirited American Bistro,” while Savvor’s continues with “Restaurant & Lounge.” They’re also two different concepts, the defendant said.
