February 11, 2019 – New York Supreme Court Justice Andrea Masley today entered a final judgment in Ganzi v. Ganzi (653074-2012), the precedent-setting trademark licensing suit involving royalties to be paid for the iconic Palm restaurant intellectual property.
Over $119 million has now been assessed against Wally Ganzi and Bruce Bozzi, the Palm’s owners, for executing self-dealing, undervalued license agreements favoring Palm restaurants they personally own. Justice Masley also annulled all Palm restaurant licenses as “a textbook example of fiduciary misconduct.”
According to Josh Rievman, a founding partner of Dunning Rievman & Davies LLP and co-lead trial counsel for plaintiffs, new licenses for all restaurants at the court determined rate of 5 percent of gross sales will be required. “We are delighted to bring a long-awaited measure of justice to clients who were denied their rightful legacy for decades,” Mr. Rievman said.
“It’s a huge number,” said Fred Newman, a founding partner of New York litigation boutique Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, LLP, co-lead trial counsel for plaintiffs. “We challenged the flat fee royalty rate, set over 40 years ago, and won. This was a hard-fought battle and a much-deserved outcome for our clients.”
A copy of the judgment can be found here.