Yoko Ono wins lawsuit against German bar ‘Yoko Mono’

A German bar called Yoko Mono will have to come up with a new name, because Yoko Ono just won a lawsuit against the owners on the grounds that the bar’s name was too similar to her own.

The bar’s name was no coincidence. It opened 19 years ago in Hamburg, and according to The Local, the owner has another bar in the same city called John Lemon.

Hamburg dive bar Yoko Mono had existed for nearly 20 years with that name, but this summer famous artist and singer-songwriter Yoko Ono filed a lawsuit to make them stop using her name without her permission. Somewhat surprisingly, a Hamburg court ruled this week that “Yoko Mono” was too close to “Yoko Ono,” and the bar would have to change.

A court spokesperson explained that the similar names meant “that it was sufficiently likely that an observer would surmise some kind of link between Miss Ono and the bar.”

The court also said the names could not be taken as a mere coincidence.

“I am indeed sad about what is happening here. We hoped that we could keep the name,” owner Nima Garous-Pour said.

Garous-Pour simply covered up the first part of his bar’s signage, and now the establishment goes by just “Mono.” He is still considering the prospect of making an appeal, but for now the bar will just be called Mono. Yoko Ono might not have wanted to be associated with the bar, but many other celebrities have actively tried to break into the food world. Here are 25 famous people who tried and failed to make it in food.