Let’s say, hypothetically, you’re interested in opening a pizza place but you’re not very creative. Sadly, the Brooklyn Bar Menu Generator can’t help you with the menu or name here, because it doesn’t deal in pizza. On the other hand, people love Roberta’s, so why not just name your pizza place Roberta’s? Great, good plan, no one will ever even think to check if the actual people who own the rights to a pizza place called Roberta’s would mind. And anyway, you’re in Spain and it’s not like there’s a global communication infrastructure in place that would provide a way for someone to quickly find out that you’re using material that belongs to the Brooklyn Roberta’s. You’re home free!
Oh…wait…there is a global communication infrastructure that allowed the actual Roberta’s to see you’re using their name and publicity materials for your fake, Spanish Roberta’s. Well, shit, now what?
Europe’s fascination with Brooklyn has been well-covered in this space, but we have to hand it to the pizza mavens/intellectual property thieves over at the fake Roberta’s, this kind of chutzpah goes well beyond just naming your bar Brooklyn. The foodies at Eater noticed the false Roberta’s, way over in Granada, Spain, and there’s a pretty damning case that they knew exactly what they were doing.
Beyond very obviously using heavy metal-themed posters that the real Roberta’s made, the false Roberta’s decided they wanted to be really brazen. Instead of coming up with their own logo, the owners of fake Roberta’s did the kind of shockingly bad Photoshop job we’d expect out of the Mayor’s office and just scribbled “Pizza Bar” under “Roberta’s.” Even though it looks like they have plenty of fun over at fake Roberta’s, it doesn’t look like the kind of place where you’d run into a naked waitresses or Guy Fieri. As for how long fake Roberta’s will be around, it’s hard to say, but Anthony Falco of the real Roberta’s told Eater they’ve been laughing too hard to look into legal options at the moment. So if you find yourself in Spain, please do get over there and let us know how the pizza is.