Matcha Shop Files to Dismiss MoMA's Trademark Violation Lawsuit

Matcha Shop Files to Dismiss MoMA's Trademark Violation Lawsuit

Last April, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) filed a trademark violation lawsuit against a brand new matcha and art cafe called Momacha. The museum claims that the Lower East Side shop is taking advantage of its world-famous MOMA MARKS and made a request to a federal judge to prevent the store from operating under its current moniker as the case goes on. “We welcome creativity and entrepreneurship in our communities,” said Rob Baker, director of marketing and creative strategy at MoMA, to Artsy. However, MoMaCha’s name, logo, and design of their promotional materials clearly infringe on our trademark in an effort to confuse the public for their own profit.”

This past Monday, Momacha co-founder Eric Cahan filed to dismiss MoMA’s lawsuit claiming that the museum didn’t serve as the initial inspiration for the shop’s branding. “We’re, like, a very fun space,” Cahan said to the art publication. “They’re a stodgy old museum doing crappy exhibitions at this point.” The shop has changed the stylization of its name (MoMaCha to Momacha) and added a disclaimer on its website expressing that it’s not affiliated with the museum whatsoever. Despite the small branding amendments, Cahan is unbending when it comes to completely changing the name of the cafe.

source: https://hypebeast.com/2018/5/moma-momacha-trademark-violation-lawsuit