The Comer family, which hails from Ireland, took over a faux-Irish singles pub that had proved an ill fit for grown-up Decatur, Georgia. The Comers renamed the bar The Grange, after the term for a manor house in their native Ireland. The new, more community-oriented pub was an immediate hit.
A year later, they received a letter from the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, an agricultural advocacy group founded in the United States after the Civil War, asking them to cease and desist from the use of the name The Grange. The National Grange (as it is commonly known) felt that it was necessary to protect its trademark on the name "Grange," even though their name is clearly taken from the same agricultural tradition that inspired the Comers and that predates the American organization by hundreds of years. The Grange in Decatur was an independently-owned pub, while The National Grange is a national fraternal order that has no involvement in food or beverage service. The action was part of a directed effort by the organization to aggressively defend its trademark. In fact, last year it successfully forced Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor, to drop its plans for a line of "grange and grassland" meats.
The National Grange may look like the heroes in a fight against Tyson, but forcing a local pub to change its name? I wrote to the Communications Director of the National Grange to express my distaste for their actions, pointing out many of the obvious ironies in the situation, most significantly, that the National Grange was founded with the purpose of protecting the common farmer from monied interests of the banks and railroads, but was now pushing around a single, family-owned business that had no interest in the affairs of the larger organization, nor posed any threat to its reputation, mission, or identity.
The Grange's communciations director, Jennifer Dugent, replied with a standard response, explaining that U.S. trademark law places an "affirmative duty" on the trademark holder to enforce its trademark against other users. She explained that the Grange Public House could take the issue up with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, or agree to a "nominal" licensing agreement with the trademark holder. The Grange Public House decided to take a third route and change its name.
