A Garage Sale Vintage clothing store and bar is opening in Fishtown. The neighborhood’s Garage bar sued in federal court over the name.

A new vintage clothing store and bar is coming to Frankford and Girard Avenues, and the owners of Garage Fishtown bar are not happy about it. At least not with their new neighbor’s name.

The company that owns Garage Fishtown, 1231 Barrage Inc., asked a federal judge to stop a Denver-based company from opening an apparel store with a bar across the street under the name Garage Sale Vintage. The lawsuit, filed last week in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, says that by using a “confusingly similar” name, the new spot would infringe on Garage’s trademark and engage in unfair competition.

Garage Sale Vintage has five locations nationwide of a concept that blends a vintage marketplace with a hip bar, with the sixth planned for the southwest corner of Frankford and Girard. The store will fill the roughly 6,000 square feet of the first floor of the former Kensington National Bank Building beginning spring 2025, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The Business Journal’s August article, which is how the owners of Garage Fishtown learned about their soon-to-be neighbor, according to the lawsuit, says that the new spot will also serve a bar-style menu with snacks, tacos, and cocktails.

Because the planned offerings of Garage Sale Vintage are so similar to those at the Garage Fishtown, and with such close geographic proximity, customers are “likely to mistakenly believe” that Garage Fishtown expanded into the space across the street, the complaint says.

A main concern for the nearly decade-old Fishtown bar is a potential new sign. In existing locations, Garage Sale Vintage has signs that just say “Garage Sale.” That would confuse people even more, the lawsuit argues.

“As [Garage Fishtown] does not have the ability to exercise control over the nature of Defendant’s business or services, any fault or defect found with [Garage Sale Vintage] services would have the tendency to harm Plaintiff and its well-earned favorable reputation,” the complaint states.

Neither Garage Sale Vintage nor the attorney for the company that owns the stores, Good Baby Management LLC, responded to request for comment. The attorney for 1231 Barrage Inc. declined to comment.

Garage has been in Fishtown since 2016, three years after the first Garage bar opened in South Philadelphia. The owners are opening a third location in the former Fox and Hound sports bar on 15th and Spruce Streets that is currently under construction.

The Fishtown location has been part of the neighborhood’s nightlife renaissance, and is famous for its Philadelphia sports murals.

1231 Barrage Inc. attempted to register “Garage” as a trademark in 2016. That application was denied because of “likelihood of confusion” since the word is already part of other registered trademarks in the same industry, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records show.

The owners of Garage Fishtown argue in the lawsuit that despite not having a registered trademark for the name, the bar is so well known in the Philly region that it is considered a “common law” trademark, which provides the right to enforce the use of a known name within a certain geographic area.

Garage Sale Vintage, on the other hand, had its full name approved as a registered trademark in 2023.

The lawsuits asks a judge to declare that by using the Garage Sale Vintage trademark, the new establishment infringes upon Garage Fishtown’s “common law” trademark.

Not everyone is convinced by this argument.

Leo Addimando, the cofounder of the Alterra Property Group and the Garage Sale Vintage’s Fishtown landlord, called the dispute “parochial and incredibly closed minded.”

The lawsuit quotes a strongly word email that the landlord sent to Garage Fishtown’s lawyer.

“You have no credible case and you should be embarrassed as an attorney to even try and head fake our tenant into thinking that this is an issue. Please know and tell your clients that either they back down, or I will personally go to the mat against you,” Addimando wrote in an Oct. 2 email, according to the lawsuit.

The landlord told The Inquirer that the email was perhaps “colored by my utter frustration,” but that he intends to support a business that has a track record in other cities of being a good vendor and tenant.

“There is no reason why a vintage closing store, that also has a bar and a food offering, can’t coexist in Fishtown with all sorts of restaurants and bars, irrespective of their name,” Addimando said.