Kennedy Fried Chicken

Kennedy Fried Chicken was founded on May 16, 1969, with its first restaurant on Nostrand Avenue in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. There is a dispute among the people involved in the business over who is the actual founder. Some claim that it is Abdul Karim while others say Taeb Zia was the early founder. Zia, an Afghan immigrant originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, is known by some as Zia Chicken or "Lau Chicken".

After studying engineering in Baku, Azerbaijan, then a republic of the Soviet Union, he immigrated to the United States in 1977 and began working at a New York City fast food restaurant chain by the name of Kansas Fried Chicken, founded by African-American entrepreneur Horace Bullard. After spending about three years learning how to run a fast food business, he decided to open his own fried chicken restaurant with equivalent quality but prices 15-20% cheaper.

Kennedy Fried Chicken was named after assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy, "because Afghans are fond of the former president." During the 1980s and 1990s many of the same restaurants have opened across New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and several other states, including West Coast states such as California.

Legal matters

The restaurants are traditionally owned and operated mostly by Afghan-Americans but are not formally connected, although their concept, menus and prices are similar. The multitude of owners has caused problems for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in New York. Since the 1990s Kentucky Fried Chicken has tried to enforce trademark rights against some of the Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurants, many of which used the initials "KFC", and have been known to decorate their restaurants in red and white colors similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.

Trademark controversy

In 2005 Abdul Haye, an Afghan immigrant since 1989 and a resident of Whitestone, Queens in New York City, registered Kennedy Fried Chicken as a trademark. He has been attempting to enforce the trademark against other restaurants with mixed results.