A federal decide has dismissed a lawsuit that Medieval Instances introduced in opposition to its employees union final yr accusing the group of trademark violations over its identify and brand.
In an opinion issued Thursday, the decide mentioned the dinner theater chain didn’t display that the union, known as Medieval Instances Performers United, was creating “confusion” amongst customers and main individuals to imagine the labor group was in some way endorsed by the corporate.
“The Courtroom concludes there isn’t any believable chance of confusion,” wrote Decide William J. Martini of the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of New Jersey.
The corporate was broadly mocked by union supporters on social media when it introduced its declare in opposition to the group in October 2022. The union accused Medieval Instances of attempting to silence it via litigation and filed an unfair labor follow cost with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board.
Medieval Instances argued that the union had ripped off its medieval-themed imagery and devalued its model.
“The weather featured within the Medieval Instances Performers Brand (i.e., citadel, swords, outdated script fashion textual content) all resemble parts of Medieval Instances’s branding and center ages-themed décor, that are clearly meant to evoke Medieval Instances’ distinctive picture,” the corporate claimed.
However Martini discovered that customers have been unlikely to conflate the union with the corporate via the logos.
“Though each make use of purple and yellow in some vogue (within the logos and costumes), ‘Medieval Instances’ is written in several stylized fonts and colours,” Martini wrote in his opinion, which was first reported by Bloomberg Law. “The Medieval Instances Mark is written in yellow or purple lettering in distinction to the [union] brand which is in black font.”
“In sum,” he added, “neither a side-by-side comparability nor the general impression is confusingly comparable.”
As a substitute, he mentioned the union’s use of Medieval Instances’ identify in its personal served a logical objective: “to determine the Union as staff of Medieval Instances.”
The lawsuit is a component of a bigger battle between Medieval Instances and its employees union, which is pushing for increased wages and stronger security requirements inside the corporate’s castles.
The knights, squires, actors and stablehands at Medieval Instances’ Lyndhurst, New Jersey, location turned the first to unionize final yr. They have been quickly adopted by their counterparts on the citadel in Buena Park, California. The corporate has 9 castles within the U.S. and one in Canada.
Though they use the identify Medieval Instances Performers United, the employees are represented by the American Guild of Selection Artists, a union that features the Radio Metropolis Rockettes and performers at Disneyland. The AGVA known as Medieval Instances’ trademark lawsuit “a grotesque try to retaliate in opposition to employees for exercising their legally protected proper to kind a union and discount collectively.”
Employees at each the Lyndhurst and Buena Park areas try to barter first contracts with the corporate. The Buena Park employees have been on strike since February, accusing Medieval Instances of retaliation and different unfair labor practices.
Though its trademark lawsuit was dismissed, Medieval Instances did achieve getting the union’s TikTok account shut down by lodging an mental property criticism with the social media large. Prosecutors on the NLRB lately filed a criticism in opposition to Medieval Instances over the TikTok ban, saying it violated labor regulation by trying to muzzle staff.