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This is the second C&D story on the HN front page in so many days. In both instances the recipient of the letter conceded. If this ever happens to you, at lea

This is the second C&D story on the HN front page in so many days. In both instances the recipient of the letter conceded. If this ever happens to you, at least avail yourself to a free consultation with an attorney. In this instance the Brewer would likely have prevailed. As a lawyer, the first thing I did was go to the USPTO trademark database and search for each of the registered marks listed in the C&D. The key here is none of Starbucks Frapucinno registered marks are registered for beer specifically rather non-carbonated soft-drinks. What does this mean? This means the burden shifts from a presumption of Trademark violation by the Brewer back to Starbucks to prove they 1. have a valid Trademark for Frapucinno vis-a-vis beer, and 2. Once a Trademark is established for beer, Starbucks must establish there is likelihood of confusion in the market place (e.g. people are buying the misspelled Frapicino under the belief they are buying an actual Starbucks product). The funny part is the misspelling, intentional or not, creates a difficult burden on Starbucks to prove the reasonable consumer would believe a legit Starbucks product is spelled wrong - think Fony/Coby/Sony electronics. I myself once received a C&D for Trademark infringement for V-Blood, a vampire themed energy drink I manufactured and distributed. The registered Trademark owner of Blood asked I stop using the mark blood in commerce with my vampire themed energy drink, perhaps I will post that C&D and my response on HN one day. Needless to say I did not stop my use of blood nor was a lawsuit ever filed.

danielharan 13y ago
Why fight it in court when he can get this much free publicity by conceding? If Starbuck were to ever cash that $6 cheque, it would rank as one of the best advertising spends in history. The cost of changing the name on that beer? Probably rewriting it on a blackboard.
- will_brown 13y ago
  >Why fight it in court when he can get this much free publicity by conceding? What I am saying is it would never get to court. It is one thing for Starbucks or anyone else to send a C&D, it is a whole other ballgame to bring a Trademark lawsuit in Federal Court, exposing Starbucks to sanctions and attorneys fees. Separately, the free publicity is not tied to the Brewery conceding (except the bonus points for doing it in a comedic way), but the free publicity is tied to Starbucks sending the C&D in the first place, the story would get a lot more publicity if the Brewery told Starbucks to fuck off - which could be done in an equally comedic way. However, if you think this is a lot of free publicity, this case actually going to court would result in 10 fold the publicity. Plus when the little guy prevails over Starbucks, gets their attorneys fees paid maybe even gets the Court to sanction Starbucks and their Corporate outside counsel... maybe 100 times the free publicity, again it would never go that far this C&D is a lot of posturing and very little legal merit, the attorneys know that and that is why the got the result they were seeking with nothing more than a certified letter.

danielharan 13y ago

Why fight it in court when he can get this much free publicity by conceding? If Starbuck were to ever cash that $6 cheque, it would rank as one of the best advertising spends in history. The cost of changing the name on that beer? Probably rewriting it on a blackboard.

will_brown 13y ago
>Why fight it in court when he can get this much free publicity by conceding? What I am saying is it would never get to court. It is one thing for Starbucks or anyone else to send a C&D, it is a whole other ballgame to bring a Trademark lawsuit in Federal Court, exposing Starbucks to sanctions and attorneys fees. Separately, the free publicity is not tied to the Brewery conceding (except the bonus points for doing it in a comedic way), but the free publicity is tied to Starbucks sending the C&D in the first place, the story would get a lot more publicity if the Brewery told Starbucks to fuck off - which could be done in an equally comedic way. However, if you think this is a lot of free publicity, this case actually going to court would result in 10 fold the publicity. Plus when the little guy prevails over Starbucks, gets their attorneys fees paid maybe even gets the Court to sanction Starbucks and their Corporate outside counsel... maybe 100 times the free publicity, again it would never go that far this C&D is a lot of posturing and very little legal merit, the attorneys know that and that is why the got the result they were seeking with nothing more than a certified letter.