I’ve had a soft spot for this confusing trademark ever since they did a bit about it on Seinfeld.
From Sunday’s NYT: “It did not call itself the flagship Ray’s Pizza because it never really had a fleet. It was not Original Rays or Famous Ray’s or Original Famous Ray’s or Real Ray’s or Ray’s on Ice or any of the other cloned shops sprinkled like shredded mozzarella all over town. It was simply Ray’s Pizza, and in the great pizza wars of New York City, it was respected as having been the first….”
Oft imitated trademark or no, Ray’s Pizza is closing its doors.
As NYT put it, “the original that was so original it did not have the word ‘original’ in its name — appears doomed to close at the end of the month.”
No idea whether its copied name played a role in its demise (the story says the closure follows a real estate dispute), but Ray’s could have put a stop to its imitating competitors a long time ago.
While being original might mean you don’t have to call yourself original, you certainly don’t have to tolerate competitors that do.