La Viagra Marina, featured in this week’s restaurant guide pullout, may soon lose its stimulating appellation. Late last month, drug manufacturer Pfizer sent a letter to Salvador Hernandez, the owner of La Viagra, a Mexican seafood restaurant on South Park’s growing restaurant row, demanding that he immediately change the name of his restaurant “to one that is not confusingly similar to” Viagra, the trademarked name of the company’s “revolutionary oral therapy for erectile dysfunction.” The word, which sounds Spanish but isn’t, implies vigor and virility —two characteristics, one might argue, of La Viagra’s bracing food. Nonetheless, Pfizer feels the term “La Viagra Marina” constitutes an “improper and objectionable use” of the company’s trademark, which “will dilute the distinctiveness” of the term Viagra, according to a letter from Pfizer attorney Jennifer Gaeta. “Viagra has acquired substantial goodwill and is an extremely valuable commercial asset,” Gaeta wrote. Hernandez, who also owns the Mexi-mart grocery/bakery/fast food joint adjacent to the restaurant, has agreed to change the name and is considering the less evocative Tapatio.
Erica C. Barnett
