The operator of Mad Dogs British Pub filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against a Spring company that used the name “Mad Dogs.” Pedestrians walk past the sign for Mad Dogs British Pub on the River Walk in 2025.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
The operator of Mad Dogs British Pub on the River Walk has gotten a Spring company that has used the name “Mad Dogs” for its restaurants to agree to rebrand. Shown is the River Walk pub in 2023.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
A 2025 photo shows some of the dishes served at Mad Dogs British Pub on the River Walk.
Mike Sutter/San Antonio Express-News
On the San Antonio River Walk, Mad Dogs British Pub has been a go-to stop for decades. It’s built name recognition among tourists and locals alike — a brand that it has gone to court to protect.
An upstart Texas restaurant chain has now agreed to phase out its use of “Mad Dogs” completely after a federal judge indicated that even its recent rebranding as “Mad Burgers & Dogs” was still too similar to the River Walk pub’s name.
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The chain runs five halal hot dog and burger locations in Houston, Austin and Spring, and until recently operated under the name Mad Dogs. It also has been tied to a San Antonio site at 427 Lombrano St., though it said it does not own or operate that location.
The dispute isn’t over, however, because the pub is still seeking damages over the alleged trademark infringement.
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MD Manageco Inc., which operates the River Walk restaurant, has used the Mad Dogs name for more than 30 years and holds four federal trademarks. The business is led by CEO Terry Corless.
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The company sent a cease-and-desist letter in May 2025 to Mad Dogs LLC and its owner, Moustafa Eissa. The two sides spent months negotiating a possible resolution before those discussions broke down.
MD Manageco sued for alleged trademark infringement March 3 in federal court in San Antonio and obtained a temporary restraining order to stop the defendants from using Mad Dogs or “any confusingly similar name.”
Rebranding
Eissa’s company considered rebranding to Mad Hot Dogs — a name acceptable to the plaintiff — before choosing Mad Burgers & Dogs as its new name, the defendants said in a court filing.
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But that name proved unacceptable, too, the defendants said.
MD Manageco sought a preliminary injunction to protect its Mad Dogs brand. It also asked the court to hold the defendants in contempt for allegedly violating the temporary restraining order.
This week, the parties appeared before Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra on the motions.
“There’s an old saying, ‘Let’s not make a federal case out of it.’ You’ve heard of that?” the judge asked. “It really applies in situations like this.
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“I also am very very concerned that we not get ourselves locked in a death spiral here that is going to end up with huge attorneys’ fees, possibly appeals, years of litigation, where it appears to me that it’s totally and absolutely unnecessary,” Ezra later added.
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He then asked Nick Guinn, a San Antonio attorney for defendants, what his clients would agree to refrain from doing.
“I would propose that they would agree not to use the name Mad Dogs,” Guinn replied, adding that MD Manageco previously had represented that Mad Hot Dogs and Mad Burgers & Dogs were acceptable alternatives.
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Ezra then asked, “Would they agree not to use the term ‘mad’?”
Given that his clients already had incurred significant expense to rebrand, Guinn indicated that wouldn’t work.
“Mad Dogs and Mad Hot Dogs could well be seen as confusingly similar,” the judge responded. “Mad Hamburgers, maybe not.”
Guinn then asked about continuing with the name Mad Burgers & Dogs.
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“No,” Ezra flatly answered. “The burgers I’m not so concerned about, but the hot dogs I’m concerned about. I will tell you that the use of the term ‘Mad anything’ in connection with hot dogs … is likely to be found confusingly similar. Putting ‘burgers and hot dogs’ in there isn’t going to help you.”
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Based on that, Ezra said he would not allow Mad Burgers & Dogs and that the defendants should come up with another name.
Preliminary injunction
The judge later gave the parties an opportunity to hammer out the terms of a preliminary injunction for his approval.
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The order gives Eissa and his Mad Dogs LLC 30 days to delete all social media posts promoting the Mad Dogs name or any similar name and 60 days to change the handles on their social media pages.
They also have six months to phase out signage, inventory, napkins and any other branded advertising — after that, they must cease using any items bearing the name “Mad.”
“Our client’s consent to enter a preliminary injunction is a testament to our client’s respect for the intellectual property rights of others and its focus on serving the best halal smashburgers and hot dogs around,” Guinn said after the hearing. “Our client looks forward to unveiling its new branding soon.”
Cassidi Bañales, a San Antonio lawyer representing the River Walk pub, did not respond to a request for comment.
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Still to be hashed out are the amount of the damages and profits that MD Manageco is seeking over the alleged infringement. The sides remain far apart on a potential settlement.
“The defendant has made several settlement offers,” Guinn told the judge, adding they were driven by cost considerations, not liability. Those offers were rejected as unreasonable, Bañales said.