Hi -- I'm the co-owner of Alinea... the restaurant and group.
While they are in different industries, I owned a derivatives trading group for years, run a tech startup (Tock), and am getting a bunch of emails from folks thinking I started this or am affiliated in some way.
So... while I dislike conflict, I really don't like be associated with something I have no control over. There will be an incoming email shortly.
Amazing to read your answer! When I lived in Chicago I Was lucky enough to eat there multiple times, and it felt a bit like something sacred was being trod on. Will never forget eating "birthday cake" directly off the table, scattered in a little cosmos. Thank you for everything you've done.
Amazing. FWIW to the Alinea (YC W21) folks, I felt your name, branding/colors, and logo felt completely off and strange. Good time to change it up?
Edit: And fonts. Modern edgy logo font and the website complimentary font is a bit... Crayola. Not dogging on you all, I'm sure having this be a focus of your launch isn't fun for all your hard work. It's a really neat idea.
Ditto on using this opportunity for a design and brand change, the purple is overwhelming and even the name for a mass market brand is tough IMO. Do you pronounce it Ah-lean-ah? A-lin-euh? A-lien-ah? Not obvious and if you're thinking about leaning on WOM its a tough word because people might hear it and google 'alina' and miss you entirely
I was about to post something like, haha, the founders didn't do their homework but after checking if there's any brand registered, there isn't. So what do you mean by, there will be an incoming mail shortly? Will you ask them to change their name and if yes, on which basis?
To the founders: ignore their email and consult your lawyer.
Trademark infringement generally requires an element of consumer brand confusion.
There is no way USPTO will see a restaurant and a stock trading app as likely to cause consumer confusion, as they are in completely different industries with absolutely no overlap. Sharing the same name doesn’t matter much given that fact.
Likelihood of confusion is not an immensely high bar for nationally/internationally-known brands (or ones that wish to be nationally-known )in the age of the Internet. Your restaurant gets a string of negative BBB reviews that feature prominently on Google that were actually aimed at someone's product? That's actual harm you can point to. If Alinea were just a local restaurant instead of an internationally-known institution, it'd be one thing, but If I were the YC company I'd take the opportunity to rebrand.
> several posters in this very thread have expressed confusion
Consumer confusion within a specific industry. Like a food company using their name.
If this were a food delivery startup, there would be an issue. Since it's an stock trading app, very few trademark attorneys would see an issue with it.
And of course, consult your attorney, as mentioned in the original comment.
To those who have not seen the Grant Achatz profile in the Netflix series Chef’s Table (S02E01), I highly recommend it. One of my favorite episodes in the whole series. Excellent cinematography and storytelling. Obvious not the only reason Alinea is world famous, but definitely gave it a ton of exposure.
I don't understand the downvotes you're getting or the negativity in the comments. I've never heard of Alinea - the restaurant before - and it's really strange that people are being anal about someone else using the name for a completely different industry - it won't be confusing to anyone.
Ha! I guess my point was that when those companies started up, searching for those terms was bound to result in some businesses popping up, though I'm sure they made the call that "hey, they're not in the payments/analytics/whatever space, so no worries"
While they are in different industries, I owned a derivatives trading group for years, run a tech startup (Tock), and am getting a bunch of emails from folks thinking I started this or am affiliated in some way.
So... while I dislike conflict, I really don't like be associated with something I have no control over. There will be an incoming email shortly.