Judge Awards Hard Rock Cafe Partner 20% of Name, $250,000

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that businessman Milt Okun is entitled to a 20% interest in the name of the Hard Rock Cafe, a trendy restaurant with locations in the Westside’s Beverly Center and in San Francisco.

The ruling upholds Okun’s claim that he has a 20% interest under a partnership agreement with restaurateur Peter Morton, who owns the remaining 80%, according to Okun’s attorneys, Gregory Bergman and Gregory Wedner.

Okun also was awarded $250,000 damages in the case, according to his attorneys.

Robert Baker, Morton’s attorney, refused comment on the case.

Heard in Westwood

Because of the backlog at the Los Angeles Superior Court, the case was heard in Westwood by retired Judge Lester Olsen, who was appointed judge pro tem in the case. The non-jury trial took six days and Olsen issued his ruling last week.

Morton and Okun are partners in Morton’s, a well-known Melrose Avenue restaurant that is “an in-spot with Hollywood moguls and movie stars,” Bergman said.

They later became partners in the Hard Rock Cafe, which opened at the Beverly Center in 1982, Bergman said. The cafe’s trademark is a vintage Cadillac that can be seen from the street as it seems to plunge into the restaurant roof.

Bergman said that Okun received his 20% share in the Los Angeles and San Francisco cafes, but a dispute arose last year when Morton decided to open up a Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago. Okun filed suit to protect his ownership rights, Bergman said.

Chicago Cafe to Open

The Chicago Hard Rock Cafe is scheduled to open this summer, and others are planned in Houston, Honolulu and San Diego this year and next, according to Bergman.

The Hard Rock Cafe name has a had a history of litigation, according to the attorneys.

In another lawsuit, Morton and a partner in the original Hard Rock Cafe in London reached a settlement that divided up the use of the restaurant’s name in the United States, Bergman said. As a result of this agreement, he said, Morton’s former partner in the London club, Isaac Tigrett, is the owner of the Hard Rock Cafe in New York.

Bergman said that in all of Morton’s endeavors using the cafe name, whether it be in restaurants or on T-shirts, Okun will retain a 20% interest.

Okun wants to retain his partnerships with Morton both in the Morton’s restaurant and the cafes, Bergman said. “Mr. Okun believes Mr. Morton is a genius when it comes to operating a restaurant, and he hopes they will be partners for a long, long time,” he said.