As it prepares to host a PGA tournament in two weeks, Castle Pines Golf Club is asking a judge to stop an under-construction cocktail lounge from calling itself Bar Hummingbird.
“At a time when we should be focused on the tournament that will raise millions for the tournament’s charity and the local economy, we are instead distracted by this case,” Mike MacAdams, vice president of the exclusive country club, said in a statement.
The club’s request for a federal injunction, filed on Friday, is the latest maneuver ina dispute that has played outsince April between Castle Pines, and Mark and Jo Brinkerhoff. The latter have spent $7.5 million constructing a 9,000-square-foot cocktail lounge and event space, and a 2,600-square-foot steakhouse in the Promenade at Castle Rock shopping center.
The restaurant will be named The Brinkerhoff, an homage to Mark’s family and its 40-year legacy of popular restaurants in the Denver area, including La Loma. The lounge will be called Bar Hummingbird at the Brinkerhoff — unless Castle Pines gets its way.
Hummingbird logos are everywhere at Castle Pines. They’re at the entrance gate, on the wine glasses, on the decanters, on the water bottles, in the ice cubes and on the golf pencils. The hamburger buns there are branded with a silhouette of two hummingbirds in flight.
For that reason, Castle Pines believes people — including an estimated 120,000 spectators at the BMW Championship on Aug. 20 to 25 — will be confused into thinking that Bar Hummingbird is affiliated with Castle Pines, the club told Judge Kato Crews in a motion last week.
“The point is not necessarily that the quality will be inferior; rather, the issue is that the quality will be different,” Castle Pines claimed, “and Castle Pines has no control over it.”
After receiving cease-and-desist letters from the club, the Brinkerhoffs sued Castle Pines on July 15 in a proactive attempt to resolve their dispute before Bar Hummingbird opens.
The Brinkerhoffs are adamant that their logo is unlike the club’s, that their businesses will appeal to a vastly different customer base (the general public rather than private members), and that the club’s hummingbird trademark pertains only to golf products, not a bar.
“Our family was instrumental in the founding of Castle Pines Golf Club, we have the deepest respect and admiration for the club and its members, and would do nothing to diminish or infringe upon the club or its legacy,” the couple said in a statement July 18.
Those connections to the club — Mark Brinkerhoff’s grandfather and great uncle were early members, he lives in one of its Hummingbird Cottages on Hummingbird Drive, he has played seven rounds of golf there since 2022 — lead Castle Pines to believe he chose the name Bar Hummingbird to intentionally infringe on the club’s hummingbird trademarks.
“It simply strains credulity to believe that Mr. Brinkerhoff did not intend to derive benefit from Castle Pines’ reputation for superior hospitality,” the club said in Friday’s motion.
The Brinkerhoffs, who declined an offer to discuss the injunction request Monday, say that Bar Hummingbird’s name is derived from Jo’s Mexican heritage and Castle Rock’s location within hummingbird flight paths. They plan to hang hummingbird feeders outside.
“Could we have just changed our name? Yes. But that would have had ramifications too,” Jo Brinkerhoff told BusinessDen last month, referring to marketing costs.
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Originally Published: August 6, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.
