5Pointz mid-demolition (photo by changsterdam/Flickr)
The owner of 5Pointz, the former artists’ studio complex and graffiti center in Queens that is currently being demolished, is trying to trademark the name “5Pointz” in order to market the apartments that will be built on the lot, DNAinfo reported.
G&M Realty, which plans to build two towers containing 1,000 rental apartments on the property, filed a trademark application in March for the name “5Pointz,” though it was turned down on June 17 because a real estate developer in California called FivePoint Communities Management, Inc. has trademarked a name (“FivePoint Communities”) that was deemed too similar given that the two companies do such similar work.
The examining attorney on G&M Realty’s application ruled that “the applicant’s mark [5Pointz], when used on or in connection with the identified goods/services, so resembles the mark in U.S. Registration No. 3899912 [FivePoint Communities] as to be likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, or to deceive.”
This in spite of the stylized conventions of the respective names, such as the missing space and expressive “z” in “5Pointz,” or the counter-intuitively singular “point” in FivePoint Communities and the company’s use of the Roman numeral for five (“V”) in its logo.
G&M Realty has six months, or until December 17, to respond to the US Patent and Trademark Office decision if it hopes to pursue a trademark for “5Pointz.”
“It’s ironic that the same corporation which single-handedly destroyed all the artwork known as 5Pointz is trying to capitalize on its name,” Marie Cecile Flageul, a spokesperson for the graffiti center’s artists, told DNAinfo.
Jerry Wolkoff, the owner of the site and head of G&M Realty, remains optimistic that the new development can and should retain given to the former art space by the artists. “The building is known as 5Pointz,” Wolkoff told DNAinfo. “The building is going to be back and the artists are going to be back.”
The new complex set to rise on the property — which is located across Jackson Avenue from MoMA PS1, between Crane and Davis streets — is set to include 12,000 square feet devoted to artists’ studios. Walls on the exterior and interior of the new complex will also be made available to graffiti artists.
To recap the highlights and eventual destruction of 5Pointz, check out Hyperallergic’s previous posts on the fight to save the once colorful cultural hub.
The Latest
Coasting the Topography of South Asian Futurisms
As part of Hyperallergic’s Emily Hall Tremaine Journalism Fellowship for Curators, Sadaf Padder presents an exhibition to offer insight into her curatorial process.
I’m a Florida Drag Queen and I’m Scared
I’m truly at a loss for what to do for work and what kind of life I can expect to live.
Pratt’s 2023 Fine Arts MFA Thesis Exhibition Is On View in Brooklyn
The two-part exhibition features the work of 41 graduating artists across disciplines, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, and integrated practices.
An Artist’s Hopeful Vision of the Ocean
Indonesian artist Mulyana crafts a tactile, mystical world in which fish, whales, and coral reefs coexist with sea monsters.
An Introduction to “Afrogallonism”
Serge Attukwei Clottey explores Ghanaian culture and identity through discarded jerrycans and other found materials.
The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation Presents The Feminine in Abstract Painting
Curated by Jennifer Samet and Andrea Belag, this group exhibition in NYC explores the feminine through aesthetics, as opposed to identity or gender.
A Ride With Liz Cohen
Nothing in the artist’s personal biography could predict that she’d one day become a car builder and bikini model.
LA’s Hammer Museum Wants to Be Seen
After two decades of renovations, the museum that calls itself a “well-kept secret” reopens with a mission to be more visible.
NYU Steinhardt Opens 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibitions
Taking place at 80WSE Gallery in New York’s Greenwich Village, Part I is on view from late March through April while Part II opens in May.
AI-Generated “Dope Francis” Fools the Internet
Many thought the picture of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket, created using Midjourney, was the real deal.
1,400-Year-Old Mural of Two-Faced Man Found in Peru
Historians hypothesize that the Moche paintings could represent artists’ attempts to experiment with portraying movement or narrative.
Miniature Worlds: Joseph Cornell, Ray Johnson, Yayoi Kusama
Through small-scale works, this exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in New York examines Cornell’s prominent role in the lives and careers of Johnson and Kusama.
Louvre Shutters as Pension Plan Protests Intensify
President Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 has sparked widespread demonstrations across the country.
They Managed to Mess Up an Art Heist Movie
There must be a lesson in Vasilis Katsoupis’s film Inside about the vacuousness of the art market or the claustrophobia of exhibition spaces — I just don’t care.