Myrtle Beach restaurant using Barcelona-based chain’s name without permission, suit says
A restaurant chain based in Barcelona, Spain wants a Myrtle Beach restaurant to stop using its name.
Honest Greens, which operates about 30 locations in Spain and Portugal, filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Poky’s LLC, which operates Honest Greens, at 7937 N. Kings Hwy.
The Barcelona restaurant chain has been operating since 2017, has registered its trademark worldwide and has plans to expand into the United States, according to its complaint.
The Myrtle Beach restaurant states on its website that it has been “mixing up something special” for more than 10 years, though news reports suggest it opened Nov. 2023.
Voicemail messages left at numbers listed for operators, Evi Spaho and Phillip Kasey, of the Myrtle Beach version of Honest Greens were not returned. Spaho and Kasey are also operators of Blueberry’s Grill, which has locations in Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Wilmington, North Carolina.
Barcelona-based Honest Greens has generated a positive reputation with American tourists, its lawsuit states, but several of those customers have sent them messages expressing confusion about whether or not the Myrtle Beach location is affiliated with their business.
The Spain restaurant chain alleges operators of the Myrtle Beach business were aware the Honest Greens name was already being used because the plaintiffs were operating the honestgreens.com domain name, leaving the defendants to register their website as honestgreens.us.
Both restaurants market themselves as offering healthy, affordable, delicious meals that are delivered quickly.
