Talk about getting skewered.
The former operators of Tavern on the Green lost a court fight yesterday to hold onto the Central Park eatery’s potentially valuable name.
A judge canceled a 1981 trademark on the moniker and awarded it to the city on grounds that the late restaurateur Warner LeRoy secured rights to the name through fraud.
LeRoy “made deliberate misstatements and omissions” when he applied to the federal Patent and Trademark Office in 1978, five years after winning a city license to run the iconic spot, Manhattan federal Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum ruled.
LeRoy hid the fact that the name had been in use since the former sheep barn was reopened as a restaurant in 1934, when it was dubbed “Tavern on the Green” by legendary urban planner Robert Moses.
LeRoy — who never told the city about his trademark application — also acknowledged the city’s right to the name in his license agreement, and “knew that his venture was merely one in a succession of operators of the restaurant,” the judge ruled.
“The city chose the name and each concessionaire and made significant investments to ensure the success of the restaurant — such that ‘Tavern on the Green’ was closely associated in the public mind with a building owned by the city and located in New York’s Central Park,” Cedarbaum wrote.
But the decision to cancel LeRoy’s trademark applies only to the now-shuttered restaurant, not to the line of “Tavern on the Green”-brand dressings and sauces being marketed by LeRoy’s family.
City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo called the decision a “major victory,” saying: “We have ensured that the legacy of the long-treasured restaurant will be preserved for generations to come.”
Restaurant lawyer David Kane declined to comment.
The LeRoy family’s company filed for bankruptcy protection last year, estimating the value of the restaurant’s name at $19 million.
Its spectacular chandeliers and other furnishings were auctioned off in January.
Central Park Boathouse operator Dean Poll, who was picked to take over the spot, has yet to finalize his pact with the city, but said he “absolutely” planned to leave the name intact.
“Central Park has had Tavern on the Green in it since 1934, and I think it would be a shame if it didn’t have it anymore,” he said.