What is black coffee branding worth in a trademark case?

Starbucks sued Starbuds Flowers, a marijuana seller, in the Southern District of New York on June 28, alleging 12 counts of federal trademark and copyright infringement. The complaint says Starbuds used a modified mermaid logo holding a cigarette amid marijuana leaves on its sales truck, website, and products, trading on the coffee chain's recognition.

The background is procedural: a cease-and-desist letter went out last August, followed by multiple takedown notices that drew no response, and by July 2 the truck and site were still running. Starbucks seeks an injunction, destruction of related goods, and disgorged profits. The case sits apart from questions such as what is black coffee or what is white coffee, which describe drinks, not marks.

Starbucks recently took a marijuana sales company called Starbuds Flowers to the federal court for the Southern District of New York, accusing it of maliciously imitating its classic mermaid trademark and misleading consumers by borrowing Starbucks' brand reputation. In the complaint, Starbucks compared the similarities between the two logos item by item, pointing out that Starbuds not only used the similar design on its mobile sales truck and official website, but also printed it on cigarettes and marijuana products. Starbucks asked the court to prohibit the other party from continuing to use the logo, destroy related products, and disgorge the profits obtained from infringement. In fact, Starbucks had already sent a cease-and-desist letter as early as last August, and subsequently sent multiple takedown notices, but received no response. As of July 2, Starbuds' sales truck and website were still operating.

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Recently, Starbucks initiated legal proceedings, taking a company whose main business is marijuana sales to court on the grounds that the company deliberately imitated Starbucks' "mermaid" logo and attempted to use it to mislead customers and obtain improper profits.

On June 28, Starbucks filed a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against a marijuana seller named Starbuds Flowers. The complaint accused Starbuds Flowers of 12 violations including federal trademark and copyright infringement, and asked the judge to issue an injunction requiring it to be permanently shut down.

Starbuds Flowers uses a modified mobile truck in New York City to sell cigarettes, marijuana, and other goods. On the outside of the truck there is a quite eye-catching design: a female mermaid wearing a crown and long wavy hair, holding a cigarette in her hand and still exhaling smoke from her mouth, with the entire background filled with marijuana leaves, and the outermost layer being a green ring printed with the company's name in capital letters.

Judging from the comparison image accompanying the news report, there are indeed many similarities between Starbuds' logo and Starbucks' early logo.

Public information shows that Starbucks' old logo was first used on coffee products in 1987 and gradually became well known to the public in the early 1990s. The logo consists of a black-and-white female mermaid wearing a star crown and long wavy hair, surrounded by a green ring with the words "Starbucks Coffee" in white capital letters, and symmetrical five-pointed stars on both the left and right sides.

In the materials submitted to the U.S. District Court, Starbucks placed the two logos side by side and used annotations to mark one by one on the image all the similarities between its intellectual property and the Starbuds logo. The complaint pointed out that whether in the color scheme of the circular logo, the double-ring structure, the crowned mermaid image, or details such as the proportional composition and capital letters, Starbuds' trademark appears to have been directly modified from Starbucks' old brand logo.

In addition, Starbucks also listed in detail the various ways this marijuana company infringed its trademark rights, pointing out that Starbuds not only used a logo similar to Starbucks' on its mobile truck and website, but also used the design on the cigarettes, marijuana, and other goods it sold.

Starbucks believes that Starbuds' actions were clearly intentional, attempting to blur consumers' judgment by relying on Starbucks' long-accumulated brand awareness. Therefore, Starbucks asked the court to order Starbuds to immediately stop using the logo and destroy all products that have used the logo. At the same time, Starbucks also demanded that Starbuds compensate all profits obtained through the infringing acts.

The litigation documents also mentioned that Starbucks had in fact already sent its first cease-and-desist letter to Starbuds and its registrant Terence Brandon as early as last August. After that, Starbucks sent copyright infringement takedown notices to the Starbuds website in September last year and in January and February this year respectively. However, these letters were all directly ignored by the company.

Another report said that, as of local time on July 2, Starbuds' mobile truck and website were still operating and continued to use these designs on the products being sold.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.