December 3, 2005

Drink Sam Buck's Coffee -- not any more

Copyright laws... Pfuuiiii! From the SF Gate:
Judge Sides With Starbucks in Name Dispute
A federal judge says the name "Sambuck's" above a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop is too similar to Starbucks Corp. — the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world — and must be changed.

Owner Sam Buck named the store after herself. She opened it in 2000, before Astoria had a Starbucks. She got a cease-and-desist letter from the Seattle-based company in March of 2002.

Buck said Thursday that she had few details of a ruling Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty of Portland. She faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyers' fees.

"The judge said I willfully infringed on (Starbucks') trademark, that I diluted their trademark," she said.

She was faced with erasing all traces of the name, from coffee cups to the sign outside to business cards.

"You're throwing away thousands of dollars worth of stuff," Buck said, "and you're left paying thousands of dollars more to have new things made."
Notice the striking similarity between the two logos:
coffee-war-sambucks.jpg coffee-war-starbucks.jpg
Hat tip to BoingBoing for the link... Posted by DaveH at December 3, 2005 4:47 PM | TrackBack
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