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Licensing firm can use brand outside of New York
A licensing company has agreed to pay $1.3 million to use the name Tavern on the Green for restaurants outside metropolitan New York, under a deal approved by Tavern’s bankruptcy trustee, The New York Times reports.
The city of New York retained ownership of the name in New York state, Connecticut, New Jersey, and part of Pennsylvania in an earlier settlement. Under a deal approved by the famed restaurant’s bankruptcy trustee, licensee Tavern International can use the name and license it outside that area. The company can also use the name on products, but cannot sell them in the New York area without getting the city’s permission and paying it a royalty.
Tavern International is run by Lou Bivona, a financial manager, who will be working with Michael Desiderio, the former chief operating officer of the restaurant. They say they will require licensees to donate a portion of revenues to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which Bivona has supported for many years.
“The acquisition of the Tavern on the Green name by Tavern International will enable us to re-create the beloved, iconic Manhattan restaurant nationally and internationally and tie it to products people can enjoy at home," Bivona said in a news release.
At one time the name Tavern on the Green was appraised at $19 million, but that was when the LeRoy family, the restaurant’s former owner, thought they owned the trademark and could sell it to the city, the Times reports. But a federal judge ruled last year that the city owned the trademark, not restaurateur Warner LeRoy.
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