Here's a court case that's between a place and a hard rock: the Hard Rock Cafe is suing the Slick Rock Cafe in Moab for infringing on its trademark.
The dispute involves fame, fortune and fast food, T-shirts and trademark infringements, and the varied meanings of "hard rock."Hard Rock's attorneys contend owners of the Moab eatery clearly chose its name to "trade off the goodwill and fame of the plaintiff's mark," and last year filed a federal lawsuit in protest.
The Hard Rock Cafe name and logo is "extremely strong and famous," the suit states, and has been in use since 1971 when the first cafe opened on Hyde Park Corner in London.
There are now 78 Hard Rock cafes around the world and the company is even considering opening a restaurant in Salt Lake City. Each cafe features American grub and rock 'n' roll memorabilia, as well as T-shirts and other merchandise imprinted with the Hard Rock logo.
Hard Rock attorneys assert, in fact, that the Moab cafe's name came from a "Slick Rock Cafe" T-shirt sold at a local bicycle shop that was an "obvious knockoff" of its logo.
Hard Rock Cafe spent $5.6 million in 1996 alone, the suit states, promoting its restaurants and name.
Slick Rock Cafe, by contrast, is small potatoes in the dining world. It has lost more than $28,000 since its debut in April 1994.
The cafe is housed in a historic building on Main Street in Moab, whose rolling red rock hills are a mecca for bicyclists from around the globe. Jan Wilking, Hans Fuegi and Steve Dering bought the old Emporium Building in 1990 and renamed it the Slick Rock Building.
It seemed a perfect locale for an eatery. They pitched the site but got no nibbles and so decided to launch their own venture.
Coming up with the first part of the eatery's name was a no-brainer: Slickrock is the name of Moab's most famous bicycling trail and is a term widely used to describe the area's smooth sandstone formations.
Defense attorney Dan McConkie notes this in a court brief in which he gives a short geological history of Moab.
Choosing a word that described what the business does was more challenging. According to court papers, the backers thought "restaurant" sounded too formal and institutional. "Bar and grill" was neither accurate nor compatible with the health-conscious bikers whose business they sought.
"Diner" was shot down because it "belied the charm of the historic building." The best bet seemed to be "eatery" until someone suggested "cafe."
"Cafe" was just right: descriptive, alluring and accurate. It turned out, however, they hadn't thought of the phrase first. Gordon Eddington had, and he owned rights to it in Utah. So the three businessmen paid Eddington $5,000 for those rights.
In early 1994, they rechristened their fledgling Slick Rock Eatery as the Slick Rock Cafe and started flipping burgers.
"The Slick Rock Cafe is the natural result of Moab's mountain biking boom, the partners' passion for the area and the opportunity to develop a cafe which lent itself to becoming the dining spot for mountain bikers," a court document for Slick Rock Cafe states.
The owners admit they were aware of the Hard Rock Cafe logo and say they took steps to make their own mark look different.
But Hard Rock's suit maintains Slick Rock Cafe's name is so similar in appearance and sound that its continued use is likely to confuse people. Also troubling to Hard Rock Cafe are other similarities between the two businesses. Both offer casual dining, with similar menus and pricing; both cater to the tourist trade; and both sell merchandise featuring their logos.
In one deposition, a witness for Hard Rock Cafe is asked what the words "hard rock" signify to him.
Pop music, rock 'n' roll, he says. Asked if metamorphic rock comes to mind, the witness says no.
McConkie turns to The Synonym Finder from Rodale Press to answer Hard Rock Cafe's claims about consumer confusion. He lists alternative words for "hard" and "slick" and then concludes: "It is difficult to discern how a `flinty, stony, rocky, steely, concrete' word such as hard is similar to slick, which is `smooth as a baby's bottom.' "
So now, after a year of fact finding and legal filings, the dispute finally appears headed for trial.
On Thursday, lawyers for both cafes will appear before U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell for a final conference and, barring a settlement, will prepare to do battle in court.