Panda Libre rebrands after lawsuit
Kung Pow Restaurant, the fast-casual drive-thru at 748 N. Gilbert Road, looks different than it did three months ago.
Owner Paul Fan renamed and rebranded his former restaurant Panda Libre following a trademark dispute with Panda Restaurant Group, the company that owns Panda Express, a multinational fast food chain.
The change comes at a challenging time when Fan is raising his two sons as a single father and trying to keep the restaurant open during a pandemic.
The Gilbert dad says he’s glad the restaurants could come to a resolution and he’s moving on.
“In the past year, most people who know my situation have asked how I’m still surviving and not going insane. It has been very, very tough,” Fan said.
‘I put everything on the line for this’
In 2020, the parent company of Panda Express sued Panda Libre after a months-long dispute over the Gilbert restaurant’s name and logo. Fan named his restaurant partly as a nod to Panda Cafe, the restaurant his parents used to run in Springville, Utah.
Panda Libre’s logo featured a grinning cartoon panda dressed in a red and green luchador costume and performing a flying kick. Panda Express’s logo features a red circle with a panda that seems to be standing on all fours, similar to the panda in the World Wildlife Fund logo.
The Panda Express lawsuit coincided with the toughest period in his life, Fan said.
In addition to fighting a lawsuit from a multi-billion dollar company, Panda Libre’s sales dropped around 75% during the coronavirus pandemic, Fan estimated.
“Everything is hurting, but small businesses are what’s suffering the most,” Fan said.
Then in his personal life, Fan and his wife separated. Two of their three children, Kyle and Keith, who are 12 and 11, live with him.
When his children’s schools in Gilbert closed in-person classes, Fan traveled back and forth between the restaurant and his home to take care of his sons. Their schools have since opened with hybrid, in-person and virtual learning — which also feels nervewracking when the pandemic isn’t over,
he said.
“There were times when I wanted to give up on everything,” Fan said. “Unfortunately, I go through those stages. But then I realize this is my livelihood. I put everything on the line for this and this is going to help provide for my family . ... Going through a divorce, a separation is hard enough. With everything, my brain couldn’t really function properly.”
Why Panda Express sued this small Gilbert restaurant
In a complaint filed on Feb. 19, 2020, Panda Restaurant Group alleged Panda Libre tried to “pass off and confuse the public” into believing Panda Libre was affiliated with Panda Restaurant Group.
The company asked Panda Libre to destroy all materials that bear the “Panda” marks or “any confusingly similar variations.”
The lawsuit also demanded that Panda Libre pay over “their profits and cumulative damages” to Panda Restaurant Group, and that “the amount of recovery be increased as provided by law, up to three times.”
Fan initially tried to fight back. He had already invested time and money on the restaurant’s logo, which appeared on materials including signs, menus, website and advertising.
“It’s not like every single panda out there is Panda Express,” Fan said in January 2020.
How the two restaurants resolved the dispute
Panda Libre closed in November 2020. In December 2020, Fan opened Kung Pow Restaurant in the same building with a new menu and concept, focusing on pan-Asian food.
The logo for Kung Pow Restaurant features a red and yellow dragon.
Court records show U.S. district judge John J. Tuchi dismissed the case on Dec. 29, 2020, with both parties to bear their own costs and attorneys’ fees.
Fan said he and Panda Restaurant Group were able to resolve the issue on amicable terms, and he changed his restaurant’s name and logo as part of their agreement. He sold his food trailer plus some personal belongings to fund the transition to Kung Pow Restaurant.
The Republic asked Fan whether Panda Express offered him any monetary compensation to replace the materials his old restaurant name and logo appeared on. Fan explained he could not offer more details on the resolution because of a confidentiality agreement.
While 2020 was a rough year, Fan said he’s starting to find more stability.
“Somehow, you can’t really stress yourself out,” Fan said. “The more you feel weighted down, the more rage and anger you feel, the less you can produce. You have to be able to keep a clear head.”
What to expect at Kung Pow Restaurant
Kung Pow Restaurant is located in the same building that housed Panda Libre. Fan said he’s currently replacing all the signs and for now, has hung up a black, yellow and red tarp banner with the new restaurant name and dragon logo.
Instead of Mexican-Asian fusion food, the new restaurant focuses on inexpensive pan-Asian food sold by the scoop at $2.49 or $2.99 each. Prices are slightly higher on third-party delivery apps to offset the commission he pays to those delivery companies, he said.
Fan, who works in the kitchen himself, said he wanted to offer an affordable way for people to get a meal.
“Because of the pandemic that’s been going on, we’ve kept all our prices as low as we can to help community,” he said. “Right now a lot of people are jobless and a lot of people are really, really just struggling to get along, to get by everything.”
Offerings include pepper steak, sweet and tangy shrimp, panang curry chicken and bulgogi beef. Kung Pow Restaurant also offers Asian-inspired burgers with house-made patties, plus garlic and basil fries. None of the food comes pre-packaged in a box and sauces, such as Korean BBQ and Asian Aioli, are made in-house, Fan said.
As business hopefully picks up, the restaurant will start rotating menu items to offer more variety, he added. With the pandemic still going on, he encourages people to take advantage of the drive-thru window.
Kung Pow Restaurant dine-in, pickup, delivery
Details: Kung Pow Restaurant, 748 N. Gilbert Road, Gilbert. 480-507-0713, kungpowrestaurant.com. is open for and drivethru.