Four Seasons Caterer Southampton asked to change its name

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Jean Mackenzie, the owner of Four Seasons Caterer Southampton, may have to change the name of her catering business.
Photos by Jessica DiNapoli

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Jean Mackenzie, the owner of Four Seasons Caterer Southampton on Prospect Street, might have to change the name of her business thanks to a barrage of letters and a phone call from the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City.

Ms. Mackenzie, who also owns The Clamman Seafood Market on North Sea Road, said that she has been receiving letters from Manhattan attorney Karen Monroe since July, and also fielded a phone call from Alex von Bidder, the owner of the Four Seasons Restaurant. A letter from Ms. Monroe sent on July 13 states that Ms. Mackenzie is in violation of Mr. von Bidder’s “valuable trademark rights.” The letter states that The Four Seasons Restaurant owns the federally registered trademark “Four Seasons.”

Mr. von Bidder and Ms. Monroe, who is a partner at Siller Wilk LLP, did not return phone calls placed Tuesday.

Ms. Mackenzie said that no one in Southampton has mistaken her catering hall for the Manhattan restaurant. “In my years doing business, no one has ever confused me with Alex von Bidder,” Ms. Mackenzie said.

She came up with name Four Seasons Caterer Southampton because she wanted to let her customers know that she was open for business year-round. She said she had been catering clambakes and summer parties for her clients, but her phone typically stopped ringing after Labor Day.

“I wanted people to see me catering their Christmas parties or cocktail parties,” Ms. Mackenzie said.

Before she opened up the catering business about four years ago, Ms. Mackenzie consulted Water Mill attorney Michael Walsh on her name choice. Mr. Walsh told her there were 11,000 other businesses with the “Four Seasons” name and that the name should not create a problem, she said. There is a “Four Seasons Nail and Hair Salon” in Bayport, a “Four Seasons Promotions Inc.” in Holbrook, and a “Four Seasons Cesspool” in Ronkonkoma, according to a Google search.

The letter from Ms. Monroe states that Mr. von Bidder sees Ms. Mackenzie’s use of the “Four Seasons” name as an infringement on his trademark, and “constitutes unfair competition.” The letter demands Ms. Mackenzie change the name of the restaurant, and destroy any advertising or promotional material bearing the name.

Ms. Mackenzie said that she put a stop order on business cards bearing the name, but is allowing advertisements with the name that she has already placed in local publications to continue. She said that she has a website for her business and owns the domain name “FourSeasonsCaterer.com.”

She hopes that she and the company can reach a settlement on the name and sees changing the name of her business as a worse-case scenario. If she had to change the name, she would pick “Mackenzie’s,” after her last name and her daughter, Mackenzie Koster.

“Big companies suing the little people is not right, but I don’t have the money to fight it,” Ms. Mackenzie said.