Nals, can you give a quick synopsis of what the Subway lawsuit is all about?
Thank you..
The name "Subway" is trademarked by the multinational American based corporation. The former franchisee of the Subway restaurants that used to operate in the DR registered the name "Subway" as if it was his name and not as a trademarked name of a multi-national corporation. In other words, he owns the commercial name "Subway" and because of that, no other business on Dominican soil can legally use that name and that's where the problem started.
The real Subway company can't grant franchising rights to anyone in the Dominican Repubilc because it's name is legally owned by the former franchisee. The multi-national want the rights to their name within the DR because as of now they can't open a single Subway restaurant on Dominican soil with such name unless they pay the former franchisee for using such name.
They have two choices:
1. Registered their Dominican Subway company with another name.
2. Attempt to gain ownership of what essentially is their trademarked name.
They don't want to do the first option, so they are persuing the second option. However, the former franchisee refuses to give up his ownership of the "Subway" name within the DR and the fight has been going on in the Dominican court.
-NALs