Charbucks Coffee Victorious Over Starbucks Appeal
Black Bear Micro Roastery and its owner, Wolfe’s Borough Coffee Inc from New Hampshire has gotten the approval of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to continue selling their coffee known as Charbucks.
Starbucks Corp tried to persuade a federal appeals court to stop the small, family-owned coffee roaster from selling “Charbucks Blend,” “Mister Charbucks” and “Mr. Charbucks” coffee.
Circuit Judge Raymond Lohier wrote for a three-judge panel that Seattle-based Starbucks did not deserve an injunction to stop Charbucks sales, having failed to prove that consumers would be confused through a “blurring” of its brand.
The New York-based appeals court let stand a December 2011 finding by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan that Charbucks was “only weakly associated with the minimally similar” Starbucks trademark.
Many retailers, especially those selling luxury or premium products, file trademark lawsuits against large and small rivals they believe are misusing their brands, potentially reducing profit and revenue and damaging their reputation.
A centerpiece of Starbucks’ case had been a phone survey of 600 people by the pollster Warren Mitofsky, which found that “the number one association of the name ‘Charbucks’ in the minds of consumers is with the brand ‘Starbucks.’”
But the 2nd Circuit said the survey was “fundamentally flawed” and drew its conclusions from how consumers thought of “Charbucks” in isolation, not its real-world context.
The case is Starbucks Corp et al v. Wolfe’s Borough Coffee Inc d/b/a Black Bear Micro Roastery, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-364.