Seattle's Queen Mary Tea Room Sues The Queens’ Tea in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City-based The Queens' Tea is ending its online business and stopping operations in its commercial kitchen to pay for legal fees from a trademark infringement lawsuit filed against them by Seattle's Queen Mary Tea Room. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that The Queens' Tea is owned by Anderson and Michael Ferguson, the first same-sex couple in Utah to wed in 2013 when a federal court repealed that state's ban on same sex marriage. According to the couple, "the word 'queens' in their business name refers to the slang term for a gay man and has nothing to do with British royalty."

Queen Mary Tea Room asked Queens' Tea to change their name or pay $15,000, citing "unfair competition" and "willful trademark infringement" per the cafe's filing with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. A ruling should be delivered in the coming months for a motion filed by Queens' Tea to dismiss the complaint.