Hooters vs Wings
vs
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-1118hooters,0,734859.story?coll=sfla-business-front
Hooters aims to clip upstart competitor's wings
By Henry Pierson Curtis
Orlando Sentinel
November 18, 2004
ORLANDO -- Pulsing dance music and footage of women wearing skin-tight nylon shorts rarely make it to the sixth floor of federal court.
Nor had a surfboard -- until Wednesday morning.
That's when the civil trial of Hooters of America versus Ker's WingHouse of Kissimmee began over the originality of marketing bosoms and buttocks to sell chicken wings and beer to young men.
This legal battle of near perfect proportions began shortly after 11 a.m. when two squads of six lawyers each -- all dressed in law-school shades of blue, black and gray -- took their seats before U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway .
"The evidence will show WingHouse has copied the Hooter girl almost from head to toe," lead lawyer Steve Hill told the jury of five women and three men. "For want of a better expression, the Hooter girl is our Ronald McDonald."
Hooters is well-practiced at defending itself against "trade dress infringement." Much more than the tiny swatches of orange and white fabric covering its waitresses, the legal term covers what the corporation describes as proprietary elements of its "extraordinarily tactile environment."
And the corporation claims WingHouse stole everything from the design of its parchment menus to staff calendars and celebrity photographs on the walls to the style of the table and chairs
And the kitsch, too: Hula hoops for waitresses' spontaneous demonstrations, Christmas lights and surf boards hanging from the ceiling, and traffic-style signs on the walls warning "Double Curves" and "Caution: Blonde Thinking."
Since opening its first sports bar in Clearwater in 1983, Hooters now earns more than $750 million a year from nearly 400 restaurants encircling the world. And a host of double-entendre copycats followed, according to a deposition by Hooters' Senior Vice President Michael McNeil, who cited competition from such sports bars as Melons, Show-Me's, Bazookas and Mugs 'n Jugs.
"Breastaurants" are what they're called in the trade, according to testimony Wednesday.
Orlando was chosen by Hooters of America as its legal line in the sand because Orlando is an international launching pad for the restaurant business. If WingHouse catches on here, its future expansion could threaten Hooters' national and international operations, the jury was told.
"We believe we are defending the integrity of our intellectual property rights," McNeil said outside the courtroom Wednesday.
Crawford Ker, Hooters' upstart competitor, doesn't deny he copied certain practices upon entering the business.
Knockers, not Hooters, was the source of his early inspiration, the former NFL lineman said in a pre-trial deposition. Knockers was a failing restaurant with an all female staff in Largo that Ker took over after retiring from football.
He opened his first WingHouse in 1994 and now runs 15 restaurants, including five in greater Orlando, according to testimony. In 2003, the chain pulled in annual revenue of $26 million -- money Hooters claims came from unfair competition.
Ker disagrees.
"Hooters wants to use the court system to accomplish what it can't do in the marketplace. It's going to ask you to create a monopoly," Ker's lead lawyer Don Conwell said in opening comments. "They're a 25-year-old chain. There's new blood coming into town and they're not up to the competiton."
The case took more than 18 months to come to trial and involved more than 200 motions and orders. Nothing in the case file gives any credit to long-dead cartoonist Al Capp, whose Li'l Abner strip popularized the fantasy of scantly clad Southern women fawning over bumbling young men.
Hooters has provided its own analysis of the essential functions of the Hooters girls.
"They are employed to entice and entertain. Their uniforms are designed to tempt and titillate . . . and the Hooter Girls enhance the titillation by their interaction with customers," a Hooters lawyer wrote the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "In short, the Hooter Girls are the attraction, and the entertainment is the business."
No decision has been announced about whether Hooters girls and WingHouse girls will model their respective uniforms for the jury. The trial is booked to run into early December.
Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at 407-420-5257 or hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com.
Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-1118hooters,0,734859.story?coll=sfla-business-front
Hooters aims to clip upstart competitor's wings
By Henry Pierson Curtis
Orlando Sentinel
November 18, 2004
ORLANDO -- Pulsing dance music and footage of women wearing skin-tight nylon shorts rarely make it to the sixth floor of federal court.
Nor had a surfboard -- until Wednesday morning.
That's when the civil trial of Hooters of America versus Ker's WingHouse of Kissimmee began over the originality of marketing bosoms and buttocks to sell chicken wings and beer to young men.
This legal battle of near perfect proportions began shortly after 11 a.m. when two squads of six lawyers each -- all dressed in law-school shades of blue, black and gray -- took their seats before U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway .
"The evidence will show WingHouse has copied the Hooter girl almost from head to toe," lead lawyer Steve Hill told the jury of five women and three men. "For want of a better expression, the Hooter girl is our Ronald McDonald."
Hooters is well-practiced at defending itself against "trade dress infringement." Much more than the tiny swatches of orange and white fabric covering its waitresses, the legal term covers what the corporation describes as proprietary elements of its "extraordinarily tactile environment."
And the corporation claims WingHouse stole everything from the design of its parchment menus to staff calendars and celebrity photographs on the walls to the style of the table and chairs
And the kitsch, too: Hula hoops for waitresses' spontaneous demonstrations, Christmas lights and surf boards hanging from the ceiling, and traffic-style signs on the walls warning "Double Curves" and "Caution: Blonde Thinking."
Since opening its first sports bar in Clearwater in 1983, Hooters now earns more than $750 million a year from nearly 400 restaurants encircling the world. And a host of double-entendre copycats followed, according to a deposition by Hooters' Senior Vice President Michael McNeil, who cited competition from such sports bars as Melons, Show-Me's, Bazookas and Mugs 'n Jugs.
"Breastaurants" are what they're called in the trade, according to testimony Wednesday.
Orlando was chosen by Hooters of America as its legal line in the sand because Orlando is an international launching pad for the restaurant business. If WingHouse catches on here, its future expansion could threaten Hooters' national and international operations, the jury was told.
"We believe we are defending the integrity of our intellectual property rights," McNeil said outside the courtroom Wednesday.
Crawford Ker, Hooters' upstart competitor, doesn't deny he copied certain practices upon entering the business.
Knockers, not Hooters, was the source of his early inspiration, the former NFL lineman said in a pre-trial deposition. Knockers was a failing restaurant with an all female staff in Largo that Ker took over after retiring from football.
He opened his first WingHouse in 1994 and now runs 15 restaurants, including five in greater Orlando, according to testimony. In 2003, the chain pulled in annual revenue of $26 million -- money Hooters claims came from unfair competition.
Ker disagrees.
"Hooters wants to use the court system to accomplish what it can't do in the marketplace. It's going to ask you to create a monopoly," Ker's lead lawyer Don Conwell said in opening comments. "They're a 25-year-old chain. There's new blood coming into town and they're not up to the competiton."
The case took more than 18 months to come to trial and involved more than 200 motions and orders. Nothing in the case file gives any credit to long-dead cartoonist Al Capp, whose Li'l Abner strip popularized the fantasy of scantly clad Southern women fawning over bumbling young men.
Hooters has provided its own analysis of the essential functions of the Hooters girls.
"They are employed to entice and entertain. Their uniforms are designed to tempt and titillate . . . and the Hooter Girls enhance the titillation by their interaction with customers," a Hooters lawyer wrote the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "In short, the Hooter Girls are the attraction, and the entertainment is the business."
No decision has been announced about whether Hooters girls and WingHouse girls will model their respective uniforms for the jury. The trial is booked to run into early December.
Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at 407-420-5257 or hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com.
Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
There should actually be far more than two chains.
