Japanese Fish Market in NYC says Legman's Stole its Sashimi Bar Concept for its Astor Place Megastore

A NYC sushi restaurant and Japanese style fish market filed a lawsuit against Wegmans this month. 🍣 🍱 Yuji Haraguchi, owner of Osakana, in New York’s East Village(located just three blocks away from the new Wegmans in Astor Place), is suing Wegmans and three other companies for $500,000. He is alleging that the new Wegman’s superstore ripped of his concept and scammed him into revealing trade secrets. Haraguchi filed the lawsuits for infringement of common law trademark infringement, common law unfair competition, deceptive practices, and unjust enrichment.

The Wegmans branding (last slide) was so similar to Osakana that Haraguchi allegedly received at least 10 messages of ‘congratulations’ from friends and family who saw press for the Wegmans opening and thought that he had collaborated with the grocery chain.

In addition to the signage, Haraguchi and his family move out of New York in the end of March and hired a consultant to help him sell this pooular local business. He was approached by a company called Culimer USA, who ‘planned’ to buy the business. They signed a non-disclosure agreement so they could exchange information freely and close the deal. They even signed a non-binding letter of intent. Haraguchi then divulged confidential information about his high-end fish products, including where he got his produce from, which fish and in what volume he ordered, as well as financial and consumer statistics from his eight-year-old business. The sale never happened. One month later Wegmans and its sushi business ‘Sakanaya’ opened up right around the corner. 😳