Can a bar located next to a baseball diamond sell tickets to customers, so they can watch the game from rooftop seating? No, says a U.S. district Judge in Chicago. A bar known as Rooftop by the Firehouse sits next door to Wrigley Field. Until 2023, the bar had an agreement with the Chicago Cubs that they could sell tickets to customers to watch games from the rooftop. But, the agreement expired. The bar owners Audan Duncan decided he did not need an agreement. The Cubs sued and two years later, they prevailed.
Judge Coleman issued a permanent injunction preventing the bar from using the team’s intellectual property and logo by selling tickets to the game without permission. The Judge found the bar had misappropriated the team’s right to its product, the live baseball experience. The bar’s action deprived the team of revenue it would otherwise have acquired. The court found the bar had infringed on trademark and copyright protections.
See ABA Bar Journal here for more information.