Heart Attack Shack Officials Say Lawsuit is 'Unmerited'

Editors Note: The Heart Attack Shack is an advertiser with East Ridge News Online.

A Las Vegas restaurant has filed a trademark lawsuit against a new East Ridge restaurant called Heart Attack Shack.

On March 27, the The Heart Attack Grill, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, filed suit in the Middle District of Tennessee Court, claiming that the East Ridge restaurant was trying to “dupe” consumers with a similar name and concept, according to media reports.

East Ridge News Online received the following statement from Heart Attack Shack officials:

“No restaurant has had any influence on the inception of Heart Attack Shack, including its name, concept and items served.

“Heart Attack Shack immediately changed the name of one menu item after learning the name had been trademarked. Heart Attack Shack is compliant with all laws and is in no way related to any other restaurant establishment, nor does Heart Attack Shack have any intentions of doing so.

“As a newly established business brand and enterprise, Heart Attack Shack has been irreparably damaged by the negative publicity brought upon it by this unmerited lawsuit, and is countering for damages. Heart Attack Shack is committed to providing the same 5-star service to our customers that it always has.”

Brian Tipps, a Nashville-based restaurateur, opened East Ridge’s Heart Attack Shack in January of 2017. The concept for the name came from an employee, Justin Howarth, who said that in another restaurant owned by Tipps, customers would order french fries smothered with shredded cheese and other condiments, by asking for “a heart attack.”

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.