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It’s been more than 30 years since the Bruins and the Celtics bid farewell to Boston Garden and moved across the street to their new home. That iconic venue now lends its name to a chain of marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts, and its owners are fighting back against the lawsuit that’s been filed by the owner of the arena where those two teams play.
It’s been close to a century since what was originally dubbed “Boston Madison Square Garden” opened for business in the city’s North End. It was designed by a boxing promoter who had that sport in mind when it was constructed, but it welcomed the Boston Bruins as a tenant during its first year of operation in 1928 before the Celtics joined the fold in 1955.
Both of those teams reaped the benefits of playing in a building with an infamously steep seating arrangement capable of inducing claustraphobia and vertigo, and it was known for the acoustics that allowed raucous fans to give the home team a big boost while striking fear into the heart of visitors.
It became increasingly difficult to ignore the building’s age by the time the 1990s rolled around (power outages interrupted multiple Stanley Cup Finals games, including one that was moved to Vancouver). In 1995, the Bruins hosted the Canadians for a preseason contest that marked the final sporting event before its closure, and three years later, the arena was demolished.
We’re now more than three decades removed from the last time either of those teams played a game at an arena that’s officially known as “Boston Garden,” but its owner is still protective of the name it abandoned in order to cash in based on the decision to bring a dispensary to court.
A marijuana dispensary called “The Boston Garden” is being sued by the company that owns TD Garden and the Bruins over a trademark issue
The Celtics and Bruins currently play at TD Garden, which was originally known as the Fleet Center when it became their new home in 1995. The building is owned by Delaware North, the concessions and hospitality company that is privately held by the Jacobs family, which purchased Boston Garden and the Bruins via that corporation in 1975.
That family affair is currently overseen by Jeremy Jacobs, who has gradually given his six children more control over the business empire over the past decade or so.
The 86-year-old has an estimated net worth of around $5.4 billion and a reputation for doing everything in his power to keep that number rising, and he pounced on the chance to court corporate sponsors willing to pay a hefty fee to have their name on his new arena when it opened.
Delaware North still has a number of active trademarks involving the Boston Garden name, but that does not include the one for “The Boston Garden” that another party successfully secured in 2023 for uses associated with the “field of cannabis.”
According to Boston.com, that second one is associated with the owners of The Boston Garden, which was the name given to the marijuana dispensary that opened in Alhot, Massachusetts in 2021 before adding outposts in Cambridge and Somerville.
The operation is co-owned by Ivelise Rivera and actor Jonathan Tucker (a consummate “That Guy”), who are now gearing up for a legal battle after Delaware North filed a lawsuit that argues they’re guilty of a trademark violation over a name it says “is likely to deceive” people into assuming there’s a link to the demolished building, asserting:
“The Boston Garden mark has become widely known and famous throughout the United States in connection with Boston’s premiere [sic] sports arena.
Members of the public are likely to be confused as to the source, sponsorship, or other commercial affiliation.”
Tucker noted he and Rivera worked with a trademark attorney to ensure everything was above board, and Delaware North had plenty of time to file an objection from the date the application was submitted in 2020 before it was officially approved by the USPTO three years later.
His business partner also took aim at what was positioned as a tenacious claim concerning the possibility of confusion, noting, “We’ve never had anyone come into the store and say, ‘Oh, I thought we were going to the Boston Garden to see the Bruins and see the Celtics. That’s never happened.”
Delaware North issued a statement saying it only filed the lawsuit after attempting to “resolve this matter amicably” out of court, but Tucker took issue with that characterization. The Boston native quipped, “If that’s amicable, I can’t even imagine what Delaware North and the Jacobs family does when they’re mad at somebody,” adding he’s in no mood to “get whacked by a family from Buffalo.”