Fighting Irish

At the Bank of Ireland in San Francisco, you can order up a creamy pint of Guinness or a plate of smoked salmon. What you can't do is bank.

That's because this is a drinking institution, not a financial one. It is a downtown pub started about a year ago by Irishmen Chris Martin and Rory Connolly. When the real Bank of Ireland, the 200-year-old, massive bank based in Dublin heard about its namesake watering hole 5,000 miles to the west, it put in an order -- to its lawyers.

"They are pursuing us, to say the least," Martin said.

Legal letters have been flying back and forth since August. Rather than moving toward a settlement, the local innkeepers have further irked the bank and its minions -- first by grabbing the Bank of Ireland domain name on the Internet, then by agreeing to rename only if they got paid $25,000 to cover "resignage. Our signs are gilded with gold," Martin claimed. "We've also got $6,000 of menus and other paperwork printed."

As Martin and Connolly see it, no one is likely to confuse the two institutions.

"The fact is, they have no registered office in America. They have no web site. They have an answering machine in New York," Martin said.

"That's not the case," protested bank spokeswoman Eillis O'brien in Dublin. "We are a sizable business in the States. We have a substantial fund management business and also corporate treasury.

"It is interfering with the course of our business," she insisted.

With the bank and "bank" at loggerheads, legal action seems the next step -- though mindful of Irish sensibilities, the real bank is not eager to be seen leaning on a bar.

"It's very amusing and all that," sighed O'brien. "Our bank does not want to be in litigation with a publican."

--Reprinted from the San Francisco Business Times, December 9, 1996

'Bank of Ireland' to mark passing with St. Patty's wake.

Fury after bank calls 'time' on US same name pub

Banks of differing tradition exchange lawyer's letters

"Irish Bank" bar rises out of "Bank of Ireland" clashes

On February 21st, a preliminary injunction was granted requiring The Bank of Ireland Bar &Restaurant to change its name. While disappointed by the decision, bar owners Martin and Connolly stated that, effective March 17, the popular local establishment will be known as The Irish Bank Bar and Restaurant.

Martin and Connolly say they have repeatedly tried to avoid this dispute by offering to change their establishment's name without compensation to the financial institution. The settlement was not possible because The Bank of Ireland opposed the bar/restaurant's new name, required the change to take place in 24 hours, and required Martin and Connolly to cease speaking to the public about the dispute.

"The whole case." says Martin, "revolves around whether the Bank has a name that is 'sufficiently famous' under U.S. Law to justify usuage by anyone else, even in a totally different line of business. "The bank claims that the bar/restaurant is capitalizing on the goodwill of Irish immigrants held towards the financial institution. I have yet to meet any Irish person with positive things to say about Irish Banks. The bank also claims that the bar is getting American downtown customers because they know of The Bank of Ireland in Ireland. Clearly, the average American downtown patron has never heard of the said financial institution," says Martin.

The court's decision to authorize the new name "The Irish Bank Bar &Restaurant" does not impose any restrictions on Connolly's and Martin's free speech, and provides adequate time for change to the new name. The owners of the basr/restaurant will be consulting with their counsel about possible appeal as well as trial

--Reprinted from The Irish Herald, March 19, 1997