Don’t fool with Fabergé.
A federal judge has ordered a Brooklyn restaurant and banquet hall using the name Faberge, to come up with a new moniker by the end of August after Fabergé, the luxury jewelry company favored by the tsars of Russia, successfully sued for breach of copyright.
Lawyers for the luxury brand also got the Brooklyn eatery to cough up $25,000 in compensation for flagrantly ripping off their name and brand to market their gaudy restaurant and lounge, according to court papers.
Restaurant owner Vadislav Yusufov must also tear down all of his signage and destroy any marketing material bearing the Faberge name within 90 days, papers state.
The jeweler sued the garish restaurant and lounge on Emmons Avenue last month for its “shameless” appropriation of it intellectual property – right down to their distinctive purple diamond storefront design.
But the ripoff eventually backfired on Yusufov, who initially vowed to fight the jewelry giant in court before quickly folding.
The company claimed that the restaurant even studded its menu with items that connected it to the luxury brand.
The House of Fabergé was founded in 1842 in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Peter Carl Faberg é created the first of his famous bejeweled eggs for Tsar Alexander III in 1885.
The Brooklyn eatery suspiciously offered diners a ”St. Peter’s Kebab.”
Lawyers for Fabergé had also argued that a Web search for the real Fabergé is often polluted with ads for the random Brooklyn restaurant, which spelled its name the same but without the accent over the final e.
Yusufov had argued that there could be no confusion because he sells mostly steaks and not expensive jewelry. But he ended up seeking a quick settlement, according to Antonio Papageorgiou, his lawyer.
“It was a business decision that it would be less expensive just to comply with their demands rather than fighting it out,” Papageorgiou told Reuters.