In the heart of downtown, a legendary tavern is embroiled in a fierce legal battle.
169 Bar, an iconic establishment, has filed a lawsuit accusing their landlord of attempting to capitalize unlawfully on its well-established trademark. The lawsuit alleges that the landlord plans to open a duplicate venue in the same location, leveraging the original owner’s reputation and branding.
According to the lawsuit, Maria Kolon, who has long overseen the family-owned property, supposedly registered the 169 Bar name and its distinctive martini logo with federal authorities without the bar owner’s consent. The suit claims Kolon is scheming to launch a replica bar at the original site.
The legal documents submitted to Manhattan Supreme Court assert, “Defendants have indicated their intention to provide bar services at the identical location using the 169 BAR trademarks,” despite lacking any rights to ownership or quality control, while also pursuing federal registrations for the Plaintiff’s marks.
Charles Hanson, the current proprietor, expressed his frustration, stating, “They’re trying to undermine everything I’ve worked for.”
Kolon did not respond to a request for comment.
The trademark lawsuit comes while a long-running and contentious eviction suit plays out in the background, where Hanson, 71, says the landlords strung him along over a new lease only to renege at the last minute.
“The trademark thing is like pouring salt on the wound,” Hanson told The Post.
The former bike messenger and DJ bought the bar in 2006 after he was run over by a limousine and got a six-figure payout, and says the only reason the iconic name and logo is valuable is because of how he transformed the bar into a dive hotspot.
The watering hole has attracted celebrities like actors Zoe Kravitz, Cillian Murphy, and Jason Momoa. Comedian Aziz Ansari has also been a patron, and his “Master of None” character, Dev Shah, partied there on the show.
Hanson explained that decades ago, the Podbielska family owned both the building and ran the bar — which was more of an eatery back then.
Jolanta Podbielska, Maria Kolon’s mother, allegedly designed the infamous martini-glass sign — and even tended bar back in the 1950s — but sold it in 1999 for just $30,000.
When Hanson bought the bar using his limo-injury cash, he said it had a blacked-out vibe of a scuzzy social club whose main attraction was oil-wrestling.
But he turned it into a bustling dive, and today enjoys mainstay status as a hyper-popular fixture of ultra-hip Dimes Square.
Hanson’s work is backed up by years of unsolicited media coverage by national and city publications, over many years,” the suit claims, cementing a reputation for cheap beer and drinks, its distinctive “NOLA vibes” and “truly weird and fun” details, like a leopard-print pool table, $5 tarot readings, an aquarium centerpiece and a “youthful regular crowd.”
Hanson actually had a federal trademark registered in 2014, but it lapsed without his knowledge during the height of the pandemic in 2020, when he notes he never missed a single rent payment.
He didn’t realize the mistake when he told Page 6 about his trademark back in March — and just days later, Kolon filed a new trademark application, claiming she and her newly-created LLC have continuously used the sign since 1977 when her mother allegedly created it.
“I think the trademark has value because of the work I put into it,” said Hanson, “because I don’t think it was this value before.”
“I don’t think that they’re compensating me for that,” he said of the sneaky move.
One possible issue for the longtime landlords is despite claiming that they first used the sign in 1977, they haven’t run the bar in nearly 30 years.
And a federal attorney for the trademark office just flagged Kolon’s application for that reason earlier this week, citing “possible non-use of the mark in commerce.”
But Kolon’s daughter, Kristal, has already been telling employees at the beloved dive “that she is the owner of the bar,” the suit alleges.
“They could have just been honest and say, look, our daughter wants to run the bar, and we don’t really want to renew the lease,” Hanson said. “It’s the fact that they lied about it.”