Family spat in court over bak chor mee

my paper | Tue Feb 9 2010

Singapore, February 9, 2010

THE owner of a famous bak chor mee (minced meat noodles) stall in Crawford Lane has taken his nephew to court over the latter’s outlet in a foodcourt in VivoCity shopping mall.

Mr Tang Chay Seng, 63, who runs the well-known Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle, alleges that Mr Arthur Tung Yang Wee, 39, is trying to pass off his stall, Lau Dai Hua, as the original.

Mr Tang, who has accused his nephew of pulling publicity gimmicks to mislead the public, wants a High Court order to stop his nephew from riding on the reputation of his stall in the Lavender area.
 
He is also seeking unspecified damages as well as an apology to be published in the Chinese-language newspapers.

The falling out between both men arose from advertisements the younger man took out in two Chinese-language newspapers in November 2008 to promote his newly opened outlet at the Food Republic foodcourt.

Mr Tang said that in the ads, the younger man had tried to pass off his noodles as his uncle’s by displaying the original stall’s awards and certificates.

Mr Tang said this was calculated to mislead and confuse the public into thinking that the foodcourt outlet is connected to the Crawford Lane stall, with a history of 76 years.

He contended that he has built up a valuable amount of goodwill in the name of Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle, and if the public saw such noodles sold under a similar name, they would take it to be from his stall.

Mr Tang’s lawyer, Mr Deepak Natverlal, said in his opening statement that his client started the lawsuit to “protect himself and his business and to prevent opportunists like the defendant from filching the plaintiff’s business using publicity gimmicks”.

Mr Tung, who is defending himself without a lawyer, claims hat he has taken pains to distinguish his business from his uncle’s stall – he sold fishball noodles, priced his food differently and claimed that his stall caters to and attracts mostly tourists. - The Straits Times

Read also:

SoShiok.com's recommends original Tai Hwa

Original Tai Hwa Pork Noodle

Popular Tai Hwa noodles

Slurp-worthy Bak Chor Mee

Spat between uncle and nephew over Tai Hwa's name