This petition has been started to compel Gordon Desserts, LLC to stop its frivolous lawsuit against Mochi Dolci, a family run restaurant located in the upper west side neighborhood of New York City.

Gordon Desserts allegedly claims that their trademark "mochidoki", a word they invented, allows them to claim rights over the use of the word "mochi" when used with "cafes, food, or dessert products", or with the suffix, "dolci".

This is ludicrous as both "mochi" and "dolci" are actual words that have been used in the public domain for who knows how long.  

Further, Gordon Desserts manufactures mochi icecream and markets their product through grocery stores and two retail shops in New York City.  Interestingly, Mochi Dolci does not make or sell mochi icecream, and is a full service bar and restaurant.

Mochi Dolci attempted to convince Gordon Desserts that they were not infringing on their trademark but nevertheless Gordon filed a lawsuit in federal court which will cost Mochi Dolci thousands of dollars in legal fees.

The frivolous case got the attention of the NY Post and can be read about here.

The Stakes are High.

Gordon Desserts, and other companies like this must be stopped from harrassing small business for frivolous reasons.  Large companies use the trademark law to unfairly target small businesses and rob the public from the benefits of fair competition which keeps prices low and quality of goods and services high.  If we lose this case, then Gordon and other corporations may be empowered to go after other small businesses. 

We must ban together and protect our small businesses from these horrible attacks by sending a message that this behavior will no longer be tolerated. 

After further research on the matter, it appears that the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) requires trademark holders to enforce and police compliance on their own or they can lose their trademark status.  Further research also seems to indicate that larger companies are using these trademark laws to unfairly stifle competition under the guise of trademark infringement.   In this case, what is baffling is that this company is suing us because we are using a generic word "mochi" for exactly what it means...it is a Japanese food for a dessert!

History

My wife and I decided to start a restaurant with a unique concept, it would have a mochi donut and bubble tea shop in the front, and a full service restaurant in the back disguised as a speakeasy lounge.

During our family meeting with our 3 kids, my two 11 year old daughters came up with the name "Mochi Dolci".  Since my wife is Asian and I am Italian we thought that this name embodied both the ethnical diversity of our family and the Asian/Italian cuisine we will be offering.  

 

One of my daughters created the logo in her image and Mochi Dolci was born!  We started renovating our office space and began selling and donating mochi donuts and bubble tea in or neighborhood since around August 2021.  By September we were done with the renovations and began inviting customers into our store which has become a third space for the local families and their children.

 

We then got a letter from a large corporation in October that made the outlandish claim that we were infringing on their trademark, "mochidoki". At first we thought they were dealing with the wrong party because the word "mochi" is as common as the word "pizza".  It appears that we were unable to convince the corporation that we did not sell mochi icreams and that our family business name and business model (we are a full service restaurant and bar) came nowhere close to theirs.

 

 

Nevertheless this company filed a complaint in federal court!  This case stirred up much interest in our local community and was reported in the New York Post.

Now we have to hire a very expensive attorney to tell the Court that we have nothing to do with infringing on their mochi icecream trademark that can cost thousands of dollars.  The alternative is to let them bully us into killing Mochi Dolci which is not an option for us.