Two One Seaports may be one One Seaport too many.
Jack Resnick & Sons, The Developer Behind The One Seaport Plaza office tower at 199 Water Street in the Financial District, is suing Fortis Property Group for allegedly ripping off the “One Seaport” name to promote a new 60-story condo tower at South Street Seaport.
Midtown-based Resnick claims Fortis is infringing on 199 Water Street’s trademark by marketing and branding its planned 80-unit residential building at 151 Maiden Lane as One Seaport, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
While Resnick says it made numerous demands that Fortis cease using the name, it claims the Dumbo-based developer has continued to “willfully exploit” the trademark at its own building mere blocks away.
Fortis adopted the One Seaport name “in bad faith and with the willful intent to confuse customers and profit from the goodwill associated with Resnick’s One Seaport Plaza trademark,” the lawsuit states.
Resnick is seeking an unspecified sum in damages and a restraint against Fortis from using the name. Neither Resnick nor Fortis could be reached for comment.
Resnick fully leased out the 35-story, 1.1 million-square-foot One Seaport Plaza last year after signing the tenants BGC Brokers and the Howard Hughes Corp.