The owner of a famous bak chor mee (minced meat noodle) outlet in Crawford Lane, who sued his nephew for trademark infringement, has lost his case.
Mr Tang Chay Seng, 63, who runs Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle, was however awarded nominal damages of $1,000 for loss of goodwill.
Mr Tang had claimed that his nephew, Mr Arthur Tung Yang Wee, 39, had passed off his pork noodles business as being linked to the Crawford Lane one.
In dismissing Mr Tang's claims on Tuesday, Justice Tan Lee Meng said in his judgment that it was more likely than not that Mr Tang had consented to Mr Tung using the name "Lau Dai Hua" for his VivoCity stall.
Mr Tang had even sent his nephew congratulatory messages after the stall's opening in 2008.
However, the judge did find that Mr Tung had made use of his uncle's culinary awards to promote his VivoCity outlet.
Justice Tan did not accept Mr Tung's claims that his uncle had allowed him to use the awards in advertisements that he had taken out in two Chinese-language newspapers in 2008.
As Mr Tung had passed off his pork noodles as Mr Tang's, there was a "likelihood of confusion" as a result of this, added the judge.
But as Mr Tang did not give any credible evidence to show how this had damaged his goodwill, Justice Tan awarded him only $1,000.
Mr Tang had wanted an order to stop his nephew from riding on the reputation of his stall; unspecified damages; and an apology to be published in the Chinese-language newspapers.
The falling out between uncle and nephew arose from the 2008 newspaper advertisements to promote the younger man's VivoCity stall.
The judge also added that he found no visual similarity between Mr Tang's registered marks and Mr Tung's sign.
In addition to the three Chinese characters (Lau Dai Hua), Mr Tung's signboard has Japanese and Korean characters and a graphic depiction of a mythical creature called pi xiu, which resembles a winged lion, on both sides of the Chinese characters.
Mr Tang's composite marks include a reference to "suspension bridge head" and "Tai Hwa Pork Noodle" with graphic depictions.
This story was first published in the Straits Times on October 13, 2010.
