Name dispute embroils two Petaluma nail salons

For eight years, Jolene Peterson had built her Petaluma nail salon into a model small business. She developed a strong customer base through word-of-mouth advertising. She got good online reviews. She even won last year’s Petaluma People’s Choice award for best manicure/pedicure.

Business at Peterson’s Bella Mia Nail Studio was thriving. Then, two years ago, Bella Me Nail Spa came to town and began trading on Peterson’s business name and siphoning off her customers, she said.

“I have a good reputation here,” she said. “It’s been very frustrating. It’s hurt my business tremendously.”

Peterson, who started working in the nail industry 18 years ago and opened her own studio in 2005, said she’s been embroiled in a two-year legal battle with the owners of Bella Me to force them to change their name to one that is not so similar to Bella Mia.

In March, Bella Me finally did change its name - to Belle Femme Nail Spa - just days before the case was set to go to court, Peterson said.

But the damage had been done. Customers are confused, she said, and her salon has received negative reviews meant for the other salon.

“We’re a small town,” she said. “People just don’t get that we’re different salons.”

Peterson’s studio is located on Petaluma Boulevard South, just south of Walnut Park. Belle Femme Nail Spa is in the Raley’s shopping center on North McDowell Boulevard. A Google Plus website and other review sites still list the name as Bella Me.

“We’re not Bella Me, we’re Belle Femme,” said a man who answered a call to the salon and gave his name as Lan. “We changed it a long time ago.”

A message left for the owner of Belle Femme was not returned.

Onita Pellegrini, CEO of the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce, said it is bad business to intentionally use a name that is similar to another business.

“It’s not a good business practice when you pick up someone else’s name,” she said. “Nobody would encourage that.”

Neither business is a member of the chamber, she said.

Sherry Knazan, who has been getting monthly manicures from Peterson for years, said she has referred friends to Bella Mia who have ended up at the other salon out of confusion. She said what the newer salon did is not right.

“It sounds like a calculated effort to piggyback on a successful salon,” she said.

Peterson said loyal customers have followed her struggle and supported her business.

“I’m grateful to all my clients,” she said. I wouldn’t be here without them.”

She said she is considering suing the other salon for lost business.

“It has been a lot of stress and heartache on me,” she said. “They definitely damaged my business.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscou rier.com. On Twitter @MattBrownAC.)