Name Change History

In July 1999 I opened my business as "Millie's Pierogi Palace". My reason for the choice of name was to give a little honor to my Mother. The name was registered with the Pennsylvania State Department, which authorized its usage. Prior to registering "Millie's Pierogi Palace", I checked the Internet using a number of search engines and found no other business with this name or anything similar. So, I proceeded to develop my web site using "Millie’s Pierogi Palace".

In March 2000 I received a certified letter from Mr. Donald S. Holland, an attorney with the firm of Holland & Bonzagni, Registered Patent Attorneys, in Longmeadow and Springfield, Massachusetts dated March 20, 2000. The letter was on client Garan Enterprises, Inc. of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts that does business as "Millie’s Pierogi". The General Manager of Garan Enterprises, Inc. is Ann E. Kerigan.

In his letter Mr. Holland demanded that I stop using the mark "Millie's Pierogi Palace" because it was "confusingly similar" to his client's marks of "Millie's" and "Millie's Pierogi". Also, he said "...Your colorable unauthorized use of "MILLIE'S PIEROGI PALACE" clearly constitutes infringement of our client's trademark rights; also it constitutes unfair competition by misrepresenting the origin of your product...." He further said that, "… the risk to Millie’s Pierogi Palace (including Millie’s Pierogi Palace’s own attorney’s fees, which would not be recoverable in any instance) would probably be a minimum of $100,000…".

That led me to seek legal counsel. The advice I received was that the least expensive avenue to pursue would be to change the name of my business. Because I did not have the financial resources to challenge Garan Enterprises’ allegations, I decided to change the name. It cost me significant personal trauma and financial expense.

Joseph C. Brozeski