The Kitchen, Wolfgang Puck embroiled in trademark dispute

BOULDER — The Kitchen Café LLC, parent company of Boulder entrepreneur Kimbal Musk’s chain of restaurants, has entered into a trademark dispute with world-renowned chef Wolfgang Puck.

The Kitchen filed a notice of opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week alleging that Puck’s use of The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck and The Kitchen Counter by Wolfgang Puck on his own new franchises infringes on the brand that Boulder-based The Kitchen has been building since its first restaurant opened in 2004.

Musk said in an interview Friday that he was shocked to learn last September that Puck’s company was opening restaurants under The Kitchen flag, particularly since Musk had viewed Puck as a mentor. Musk said the two met for lunch at Puck’s Spago Beverly Hills restaurant in California in the summer of 2012 to chat about their ventures, with Puck offering advice to Musk on growing his business.

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“The next thing I know, he copied it,” Musk said. “It was so shocking I don’t know how to say it other than just how it is.”

The Kitchen’s notice of opposition asks that the patent and trademark office refuse trademark applications filed by Puck’s company.

Puck’s attorney, Joan Kupersmith Larkin, on behalf of Puck and the company said when reached by phone Friday that, “We don’t comment on pending litigation.”

Puck’s company, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide Inc., last year opened the first The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck franchise in Grand Rapids, Mich., touting fresh, locally sourced “comfort fare.” The company has plans to open more The Kitchen-branded restaurants, including one at Washington Dulles International Airport this year.

Musk’s first The Kitchen opened in Boulder in 2004, with a focus on a high-end dining experience with food sourced from local farmers and ranchers. The Boulder company followed with its The Kitchen Upstairs cocktail lounge and bar concept in 2005. In 2011, the company added the first The Kitchen Next Door, a more casual concept based on the same basic tenets of local, fresh food.

The company has since opened three additional The Kitchen restaurants in Denver, Fort Collins and Chicago, as well as two more The Kitchen Next Door restaurants in Denver and Glendale. The Kitchen is also planning to open a pair of restaurants in Memphis, Tenn., this year and has reportedly been looking at opening a restaurant in Pittsburgh as well.

Musk said Friday that he’s not concerned that Puck’s new franchise is going with the theme of locally sourced, sustainable food sources like his own but rather that the signage and branding of Puck’s restaurants will cause confusion with the Boulder company’s brand.

“I want people to support farmers,” Musk said. “That’s awesome. But to do a total ripoff of our brand is really awful.

“They have done this intentionally to work off of our good name.”

When he first learned of Puck’s new restaurants last fall, Musk said he reached out to the chef to try and address the issue amicably. But he said Puck never returned his calls and through his attorneys said he would not change his restaurants’ names. Musk said he’s suggested several alternatives, such as Wolfgang Puck’s Kitchen, that his company would be OK with, only to have such suggestions rejected.

“Wolfgang Puck was a mentor of mine, and he just went to the dark side,” Musk said.

This isn’t the first time Musk’s company has been embroiled in a trademark battle recently.

Last March, Musk and the owner of the Next Door food and drink restaurant in Loveland settled a dispute over that restaurant’s name, with the Loveland restaurant ultimately changing its name to Door 222.