Around New England

Lizzie Borden Isn’t Just A House and A Hatchet, Judge Rules

October 30, 2023

A coffee shop next to the house where Lizzie Borden (allegedly) killed her miserly father and step-mother with a hatchet in 1892 can keep the name Miss Lizzie’s Coffee at least for the time being, a federal judge said.

The company that owns the Lizzie Borden House, U.S. Ghost Adventures, sued the owner of the coffee shop, claiming the coffee shop is infringing on the company’s trademark.

But the coffee shop’s hatchet logo is significantly different from the Lizzie Borden House’s hatchet logo, and the coffee shop is latching onto “the historical story of Lizzie Borden,” and not the Lizzie Borden House’s trademarked name, the judge wrote.

“Indeed, the same issues would arise if Miss Lizzie’s called its café ‘Forty Whacks Coffee’ and used a different image as its logo,” U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin wrote in his ruling Friday, October 27 denying the Lizzie Borden House’s motion for a restraining order against the coffee shop, according to the Fall River Herald News.

The case is pending. A scheduling conference is scheduled for Wednesday, November 1, according to the Fall River Herald News.

Lizzie Borden (1860-1927) was a 32-year-old live-at-home spinster when her father, Andrew, and step-mother, Abby, died of ax wounds at their home in Fall River, Massachusetts in early August 1892. Borden was tried and acquitted on murder charges. Police never identified another suspect.

The case is the subject of a popular children’s rhyme.

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