In a follow-up to a story from a year ago, we’re learning that Michelin three-starred San Francisco restaurant Quince quietly dropped its legal fight against SF-based e-commerce company Quince.com, but the financial details are not public.
The 22-year-old restaurant Quince filed a lawsuit against online retailer Quince.com about a year ago, citing brand confusion and other problems with the use of the name — and given that both companies are based here in San Francisco, the restaurant had even begun receiving returned sweaters and other such packages in the mail from confused consumers.
Quince.com came into being in 2020, founded by CEO Sid Gupta, and has since grown in visibility as a purveyor of reasonably priced “sustainable luxury” clothing and other goods.
Quince the restaurant was founded by the husband and wife team of Michael and Lindsay Tusk in 2003, and while it was partly dormant during part of the pandemic, and then closed for a year in 2023 for a remodel, the restaurant has come back and continues to hold three Michelin stars — one of only three restaurants in San Francisco to currently have this distinction.
As SFist noted last year, beyond just the name confusion, Quince.com’s typeface and earthtoned branding was oddly similar to Quince’s, and the Tusks became more incensed when, as they sought to sell their own retail goods, like knives and kitchenware, they saw that Quince.com was also getting into the cookware business.
And things are complicated by the intricacies of trademark and patent law, with the restaurant holding a trademark for catering and culinary consulting services that’s on the “supplemental register” of trademarks, and their application for a primary trademark of “Quince” for restaurant and bar services is still pending. Quince.com also has a pending trademark application for online retail services.
Quince’s ownership entity, Quince & Co. LLC, filed suit against Quince.com’s parent company, Last Brand Inc., after the latter rejected a $12 million offer to settle the dispute last January. But by June, as the SF Business Times reports, the two parties appear to have quietly reached a settlement that was not made public.
Neither party has commented publicly about it, but the Business Times cites court documents showing that the lawsuit was dismissed “with prejudice,” and both parties agreed to pay their own legal fees and expenses.
Meanwhile, quincerestaurant.com and quince.com still share a strangely similar aesthetic.
Previously: Three-Michelin-Starred SF Restaurant Quince In Legal Fight With Retailer Quince.com
Top image: Photo courtesy of Quince, the restaurant