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Wing war: Chicken-wing chain sues U.S. counterpart

January 10, 2011 Brendan Kennedy

Ontarios poultry-pushing pugilist and self-styled chicken-wing king, is girding for a fight. Rick Smiciklas, the founder and owner of the Aurora, Ont.-based Wild Wing sports bar franchise and also a local boxing promoter says he is launching a lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, the American wing giant, which broke ground at its first Canadian location last week. These are big bad Americans trying to ruin a little guy like me, said Smiciklas, who opened the first Wild Wing in Sunderland, Ont., in 1999 and has overseen the companys expansion to more than 75 franchises, mostly in suburban GTA. The lawsuit has yet to be filed in court, but Smiciklas said it alleges the Minneapolisbased Buffalo Wild Wings recently named one of the top 10 fastest-growing restaurant chains in the U.S. is infringing on his companys trademarked name and misleading customers. Kim Saunders, who works for Fleishman-Hillard, the public relations firm that represents Buffalo Wild Wings Inc., said the company will have no response until a legal action is formally filed in court. She forwarded the Star a statement from VicePresident and Associate General Counsel, Matt Brokl.

We are continuing to move forward with our Canadian expansion plans and are confident that we have the right to use the name and trademarks for Buffalo

Wild Wings here in Canada.

The wing flap went public in August, when Buffalo Wild Wings which operates about 700 restaurants across the U.S. announced expansion plans that would see them open 50 restaurants in Canada in the next five years.

Wild Wing has over 101 dif ferent sauces av ailable f or its w ings . Keith Beaty/Toronto Star

The company set its sights on Southern Ontario as its first target outside the U.S. They hope to open their inaugural Canadian franchises in Oshawa and Mississauga in the spring. Smiciklas who hopes to have 100 Wild Wing restaurants open by the end of the year said he welcomes the competition in the alreadycrowded wing game; but he needs to protect his companys name. Whats the point of having a trademark and having laws if its not there to protect you? he said. What, the New York Rangers can operate as the New York Maple Leafs? Its intellectual property, it belongs to me, theyre infringing. End of story. Smiciklas registered Wild Wing as a Canadian trademark in 2003. He filed his application three years earlier, according to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Buffalo Wild Wings has so far been unsuccessful in its applications to have its company name trademarked in Canada. Smiciklas is currently opposing the companys most recent application. Certainly if you have a registered trademark in Canada it gives you the exclusive right to use that mark in Canada, and that includes the right not to have anyone else use a mark thats confusing with it, said Teresa Scassa, University of Ottawa law professor and author of Canadian Trademark Law. But a court might not agree that the two names are confusing. They might find there is a sufficient difference between the two by the addition of the word Buffalo, Scassa said.

Smiciklas, who is taking great pains to paint his company as a plucky underdog in the face of corporate America, relishes his role as Rocky to Buffalo Wild Wings' Apollo Creed. "I'm not going to roll over and let these guys try tom uscle me," Sm iciklas said. "You wantt o go? Let s go. That s my famous line." Wing wars