Urbani Truffles relinquishes name in U.S. legal settlement
Lawsuits seek millions in back payments By Lisa Wolff
BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Rosario Safina, president of Rosario d’Epicureo, settled a trademark infringement, unfair competition, anti-dilution and anti-cyber-squatting lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York here April 10, relinquishing the Urbani name to Urbani Tartufi, the Italian supplier of truffles and gourmet foods.
Urbani's truffle oils.
Until last fall Safina had been conducting distribution business from his offices in Long Island City, N.Y., and Culver City, Calif., under the trade names Urbani Holdings Inc., Urbani Truffles USA and Urbani Truffles and Caviar USA, since 1983.
According to the settlement agreement, Safina was to cease all sales and marketing activities relating to the Urbani name or company logos by May 10, with the exception of the porcini mushrooms, which is to cease by July 9. The settlement also requires Safina to transfer the Web sites www.urbani.com and www.urb-aniusa.com to Urbani Tartufi, and to change his company’s ticker symbol from UBNI. Safina said he was selecting a new ticker symbol at press time.
“Urbani was concerned about (Safina) putting the Urbani label on products that were not supplied by Urbani,” said Raymond Fersko, managing member of New York-based Ferskos LLC, the plaintiff’s attorney. Urbani submitted proof to the court that Safina was selling assorted dried mushrooms, caviar and other gourmet foods with the Urbani name and logos, which were not supplied by Urbani.
“We didn’t want to arrive to this serious point with Rosario, but we were forced by his ‘un-understandable’ behavior, years of shipments without any payment and unfaithful competition while my family treated him as a son,” said Olga Urbani, director of Urbani Tartufi in Italy. “He was for me like a brother, and we have built together very much during the years...life is hard to believe sometimes.”
Urbani’s new exclusive distributor is Urbani Truffles USA Ltd., based in New Wales, Pa. Lee Urbani is president of the new entity. (See related story on page xx.) He is nephew of Paul Urbani, who first introduced Urbani products to the United States in 1946 and who represented the line until Safina took over in 1983.
“We had to get it done quickly to get the confusion out of the marketplace,” said Lee Urbani, in relation to the trademark settlement.
Four other lawsuits, totaling nearly $2 million in back payments from Safina, are pending: two in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, one in Civil Court of the City of New York, County of Queens, and one in Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Queens. The lawsuits were filed by four different truffle suppliers, based in Geneva, Barcelona and Umbria, Italy. The two Italian suppliers are owned by Urbani Tartufi. According to Fersko, another $1 million is owed to Urbani Tartufi and the Urbani family, but has yet to be filed in court.
“The marketplace had some confusion in the last one and a half years, when Rosario stopped his payments, about why the products were not delivered. This reflected poorly on our family name,” said Lee Urbani.
Safina claimed the delay in shipments was caused by a tax evasion dispute with the Italian government that froze all assets at Urbani Tartufi.
“There was never an issue with Rosario respecting the timeliness of the shipments for which he owes millions of dollars,” said Fersko. “In addition, he has signed written acknowledgements expressing not only the obligation to pay, but also confirming receipt and total satisfaction for the shipments, both for punctuality and quality. The only delay that Rosario Safina has mentioned is in the context of his apology for, acknowledgment of and recognition of the damage he has caused as a result of the delay in payment.”
Fersko further acknowledged a dispute Urbani had with the Italian government regarding value-added taxes, which were settled April 26 by way of a mutually agreed upon payment by Urbani Tartufi “without admission of liability.” He said the tax proceeding did not effect product shipments.
Safina said he believes the debt claims fail to take into account payments and credits to which his company is entitled and the “true obligation” is closer to $400,000.
Safina’s attorney, Carl Soller, of New York-based law firm Hodgson Russ LLP, said the financial claims, as high as $3 million in back payments, are “tremendously overstated” and noted “we have not gotten any documents verifying the amount of the monies owed.”
According to Fersko, Urbani Tartufi has signed acknowledgements by Safina of nearly $2 million of debt owed to Urbani, witnessed by an Italian notario, an appointed official who oversees the signing of official documents and ensures the signing parties understand what they are signing. He further said Safina has called in a writing analyst to dispute his signed acknowledgment of the debt.
Safina said the financial claims “are not true at all” and that the proof of his signed acknowledgements of debt “will be seen the day we are in court.”
Fersko said initial business settlement proceedings were scheduled for mid-May.
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