VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Boston Market, a limited-service, home-meal replacement chain, has filed a statement of defense and counterclaim against Boston Pizza International Inc., which does not want it to use the Boston Market name in Canada.
In a news release, Boston Pizza, a 165-store full-service pizza chain headquartered in Vancouver, said the lawsuit originated in 1995, when Golden, Colo.-based Boston Market registered trademarks for "Boston Chicken" in Canada. (Boston Chicken was Boston Market's original name; it changed its name in 1999 to better reflect its broadening product line.) Boston Pizza moved to have the registration cancelled, but it was appealed, and the trademark issue remains unsettled.
Boston Pizza called Boston Market's claim "purely strategic" and "without merit."
User Comments