Hooters, Twin Peaks, and other franchises that feature scantily clad women may no longer use the term "breastaurant" to advertise their establishments now that
Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill has trademarked the term.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted ATX Brands LLC, the company that owns the Texas-based Bikinis franchise, trademark rights to "breastaurant," meaning no other business may use the term to describe itself.
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"We're really excited about receiving this federal trademark," ATX Brands CEO Doug Guller said in a statement. "Our team has worked hard over the last seven years to offer a unique experience to our fans. It just further solidifies that Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill is America's ONLY breastaurant."
There has long been competition between the second-tier "breastaurants" like Bikinis, Twin Peaks, Canz, and Tilted Kilt to knock Hooters from its throne as number one. During the height of the recession, Hooters was bringing in almost $1 billion a year in revenue, but with all the other restaurants employing the same business strategy of beautiful women serving wings and beer, Hooters sales' declined 4 percent last year.
"Hooters should be very scared," Drew Neisser of Renegade Marketing Group told ABC News. "The category can only grow so much. Tilted Kilt and the others are stealing Hooters' customers."
Hooters released a statement last month to ABC News commenting on the war of the "breastaurants."
"The restaurant model that others have dubbed 'breastaurants' is a moniker too shallow to define Hooters," the statement read.
This isn't the first time Guller and Bikinis have made headlines. In July, Guller purchased the abandoned town of Bankersmith, Texas, off Craigslist with plans to convert it into a seasonal tourist destination.
Guller renamed the town Bikinis in honor of his restaurant, and envisions building a Bikinis Hall of Fame there.
Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill has locations throughout Texas, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
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