THE INN AT BRUNSWICK STATION.
A jury in federal court ruled in favor of The Brunswick Inn’s trademark infringement lawsuit Wednesday against cross-Maine Street rival The Inn at Brunswick Station.
Eileen and James Hornor, owners of The Brunswick Inn, alleged that the larger, newer Maine Street hotel’s name was so similar to that of their smaller Park Row lodging that it caused confusion among guests, advertisers, vendors and occasionally even emergency personnel.
After hearing three days of testimony, jurors unanimously agreed, and awarded the Hornors $10,000 in monetary damages.
THE BRUNSWICK INN.
What the new name will be has yet to be determined, said attorney James Goggin of the Portland law firm Verrill-Dana, who represented the Hornors.
The name change will be “worked out with the court,” Goggin said, after a federal judge issues an injunction in January prohibiting the Inn at Brunswick Station from using that name.
Testimony in the intellectual property case began Dec. 16 and concluded at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 18, when U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen handed the case to the jury for deliberation.
Jurors returned with their verdict at 5 p.m.
They determined that The Brunswick Inn had “acquired distinctiveness within the community of people interested in visiting Brunswick, Bowdoin College, and Brunswick’s cultural amenities, and that a new hotel called ‘The Inn at Brunswick Station’ had adopted a confusingly similar name,” according to a statement released by law firm Verrill-Dana.
Personal testimony, profitand loss statements, stories from regional periodicals and The Times Record were cited as evidence in the lawsuit’s presentation.
Massachusetts-based parent company JHR Development Inc. opened the Inn at Brunswick Station in 2011 as part of a large commercial retail complex built atop the site of the former Maine Street Station train platform.
Witnesses for The Brunswick Inn, including Eileen Hornor who took the stand on Monday, testified that since that time, the smaller business has lost money due to confusion regarding the similarity of the business’s names.
Attempts by The Times Record to contact Boston attorney Frank Gaeta, counsel to JHR Development Inc., and spokespersons from The Inn at Brunswick Station, were not successful Thursday.
jtleonard@timesrecord.com
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