Hard Rock Café targets Soft Rock Café in trademark claim
Multinational restaurant chain Hard Rock Café has said it has not ruled out legal action following a string of threats against a UK-based café.
The Soft Rock Café in Merseyside, and its owner Robbie Forbes, have been contacted by representatives of the Hard Rock Café saying the name and logo are too similar to its own.
Hard Rock Café, which also runs hotels and casinos, has more than 170 outlets in around 80 countries across the world.
Nevertheless, it said, customers may think the Soft Rock Café, located in the town of Liscard, home to just over 14,000 people, was connected to it.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Hard Rock Café group said it had been attempting to resolve the situation in an amicable manner for several months but had yet to receive a response.
“At this time, Hard Rock has no intention to initiate legal proceedings, but if the owner continues to refuse to engage in meaningful dialogue, Hard Rock reserves the right to consider necessary actions to protect the goodwill and reputation of the brand”.
Leighton Cassidy, partner at Field Fisher, told WIPR many of his firm’s clients were becoming aware of the negative implications of sending “overly aggressive” cease and desist letters before taking action.
“We have noticed that some of our ‘big brand’ clients increasingly want to tone down their initial approach and in many cases will get in touch with the alleged infringer business to business,” he said.
Hard Rock’s initial letter to Forbes said: “The words rock cafe are used in the same order and hard and soft have opposite but associated meanings.
“In addition, the logo and the stylised mark used at the Soft Rock Café premises use a font that is extremely similar to our client’s registered logos”.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo newspaper, Forbes said: “There has been an awful lot of support from people over the last couple of days. They said they think it’s ridiculous and there’s no comparison to the Hard Rock Café, which there isn’t”.
Cassidy added that disgruntled infringers were increasingly provided with “immediate and cost effective” ways to put their side of the case, which can generate negative publicity as a consequence.
“In certain instances it can be seen by other customers/clients as heavy handed and will generate negative commentary on social media,” Cassidy said.
