DALLAS — A trademark lawsuit between two similarly-named Dallas restaurants is finally over after reaching a settlement which includes the restaurant Carbone's Fine Food and Wine changing its name.
Matthew Yarbrough, the attorney for Carbone's Owner Julian Barsotti, said the 10-year-old local restaurant would be closing Jan. 1, 2023, and be reopening at an undetermined date with an undetermined new name. Yarbrough said the restaurant had already planned to close on that date for renovations anyway.
The lawsuit was initially filed in June 2022, just three months after the similarly named restaurant, Carbone, had opened in Dallas, causing confusion for many diners and employees.
Neither party disclosed the terms of the settlement but Yarbrough said the new Carbone's would be helping Barsotti renovate his restaurant and open it into something new.
Carbone had the backing of a much larger parent company, Major Food Group, which owns multiple restaurants around Dallas and other cities around the world like New York, Hong Kong and Miami.
The new restaurant being drawn up will be Barotti's third Italian restaurant in Dallas following Nonna and Fachini in Highland Park. Along with a new name, the restaurant will have an upgraded menu and a 14-seat bar, with many popular dishes from the previous Carbone's staying on the menu.
Attorneys first made plans to settle in August but continued negotiating until this month, Yarbrough said. A motion for dismissal was submitted for the case on Nov. 18.
Yarbrough said Carbone's didn't have the federal trademark to the name, but said he had a plan prior to settling to prove Carbone's had been using the common law trademark since before the federal trademark was created. Yarbrough added that local restaurants using the name first have the superior right in trademark lawsuits.
