Red Light?

Red Tomato, Red Market, Red History or simply Red Card?

So you believe that you can control history? Some people seem to think so.

Here's the story:

There used to be a restaurant called "Rouge Tomate" on the Place du Marche Saint Honoré in Paris. In 2005 we reviewed that restaurant in the BKWine Brief number 24. At the time of writing the restaurant was called Rouge Tomate (we quite liked it too).

Apparently there was a similarly named restaurant in Brussels who took offence that a Paris restaurant uses the same name.

The Paris restaurant apparently (we haven't yet been there to check the veracity) has changed name: previously called "Rouge Tomate", currently called Rouge "Saint Honoré". One can only assume that they have been forced to do so by the lawyers of the Brussels restaurant (Owned by a company called Le Chateau de ma Mere, who claims to own (where? world wide perhaps.) the brands "Rouge Tomate", "Tomate Rouge", and "Rouge")

It is of course unfortunate that we have a restaurant review on the site that uses an outdated name so we are grateful for anyone who points out incorrect information on our site. We usually change erroneous information very quickly since we don't want to point our readers in the wrong direction.

So, here's the easy and straight forward way: Send us an email and tell us that Rouge Tomate in Paris is no longer called that but Rouge Saint Honore - et Voilà! We change it as soon as we can.

Not so in this case.

We receive an not very friendly (to say the least) fax, and email, and letter, saying:

(If you don't read French just skip to after the French text and you'll get the explanation.)

"Nous vous écrivons en notre qualité de conseil habituel de la société anonyme Le Château De Ma Mère dont le siège sociale est situé 190 avenue Louise à 1050 Bruxelles en Belgique.

Notre cliente est titulaire notamment des marques suivantes:

- « Rouge Tomate » (dépôt INPI n :o 023168553 du 11 juin 2002 – dépôt communautaire n:o 003604618 du 28 novembre 2003 et dépôt international n:o 846644 du 12 janvier 2005 avec priorité au 7 décembre 2004).

- « Tomate Rouge » (dépôt communautaire n :o 004266508 du 1er février 2005)

- « Rouge » (dépôt INPI n:o 053363947 du 8 juin 2005)

Elle exploite également le restaurant Rouge Tomate situé à Bruxelles.

Notre cliente a constaté que cette dénomination apparait sur votre site internet dès lors que vous faite référence a l’ancienne restaurant Rouge Tomate qui était situé au 34 Place du Marché Saint Honoré à Paris (lien : http://www.bkwine.com/bkwine_brief/brief_024_e.htm). Ce restaurant n’existe plus sous cette dénomination, mais sous le nom « Rouge Saint Honoré ».

Nous vous remercions dès lors de bien vouloir supprimer, pour le 15 février 2008, toute référence à la dénomination « Rouge Tomate » sur votre site, dès lors que celle-ci induit une confusion dans l’esprit du public. Ceci vous permettra également d’assurer la fiabilité des information que vous mettez à disposition de votre public d’internautes.

Nous vous demandons dès lors de nous confirmer par écrit, pour le 15 février 2008, que les modifications ont bien été apportées.

La présente vous est adressée sous toute réserve et sans aucune reconnaissance préjudiciable dans le chef de notre clients.

Vous trouverez par ailleurs en annexe une traduction en anglais de la présente lettre.

Nous vous prions de croire, Madame, à l’assurance de nos salutations distinguées."

Signed by two (one assumes) lawyers from the firm Koan Association d’Avocats.

We are of course very grateful that it is pointed out to us that the restaurant has changed name. And we have noted the change of name on the appropriate pages.

The lawyers are also kind enough to think of our reader, saying that by following their demands we will also assure the correctness or trustworthiness (fiabilité) of our information. We are very keen to have full and correct information available to our readers so in order to not confuse any readers we have now specified that the Paris restaurant is called "Rouge Saint Honore", previously known as "Rouge Tomate", lest people think the restaurant they once knew and liked has disappeared.

One might also note that

It makes us wonder though about Rouge Tomate in Bruxelles. It is not very likely that we will be going there any time soon, so perhaps someone else who goes there can tell us if the service at that restaurant is just as friendly. And what about the food?

It would have been quicker with a simple email.

[Koan, apparently, is a Brussels law firm with the English strap line "Koan Legal Strategies". The have a very slick web site where one can learn this: "Koan - This word means literally: 'Which sets precedent'. In its modern sense, coming from The zen philosophy, Koan is an enigma whichcan be resolved by going beyond the habitual thought process. Change perspective... Find solutions."

Quote from the English welcome page of the Koan site. Bold emphasis is ours. Misspellings are theirs.]

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