Posted with permission by Tallyhead jetsnow
The Office Bar and Grill, Boise, Idaho. Wonders jetsnow, “I feel like there has to be an NBC trademark violation going on here…”
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I guess this was worth being filmed nonstop for nine years.
Here is another possible violation
I am now planning a road trip to Boise. NOW.
What…?? It’s just a font…
It’s hard to prove any copyright or trademark infringement with a name like “The Office”. It’s so vague. There were probably thousands of bars and restaurants around the country named “The Office” before the TV show. I’d argue fair use if NBC came after the owner and tell NBC to get lost and if not sue me.
I don’t know about “the office”, but that thing above it that says “officetally.com” has to be a copyright violation. I would so sue them!
Is there anything that actually relates this place to The Office other than its name?
There was “The Office Bar & Grill” in Scottsdale, AZ that all of a sudden changed their name to “The Mountainside Office Bar & Grill”.
There’s one in Oscoda, MI, and the best thing is that the address is 110 E Dwight St! We took a photo out front during an Office fan meet up.
It wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t for the fact that it uses the name, font, lower case, colors, and word placement.
@BD – they should’ve called it the ‘Serenity by Jan Bar & Grill’… after all she was always supposedly visiting Scottsdale to visit her sister! :)
The problem of course for any of these places if NBC or whomever did decide to go after them is that NBC has a massive legal department and would bury a small business owner in litigation. Good arguments could probably be made on both sides of the infringement issue but when you’re the little guy, a big well financed giant like NBC could well put you out of business just by bullying you around with litigation costs. I can see why from a small business owner’s perspective if NBC came to me and said change your name from The Office Bar & Grill to the Mountainside Office Bar & Grill, or we’ll bury you in legal expenses, you’d probably just go along with them.
Can they really sue over a font though? I mean, there are bars called The Office all over the country. My dad used to go to one in California. Which was a really clever name for a bar, until my step-mom started asking, “which one?”
Still, my favorite name is Danny’s Public School. I’d like to see a homage to that.
There was The Office bar in Scranton before the show actually started. It closed before then too.