Starbucks, like most other successful companies, is very cognizant of its trademarks. A doggie daycare company in Algonquin, Illinois is finding out just how protective Starbucks is.
Andrea McCarthy-Grzybek started a doggie boarding business in March 2012 and decided to name the company Starbarks. She set up a website, Starbarks.com and devised a logo for the business that looks suspiciously similar to the world-known Starbucks logo, with a green exterior, including 2 stars, and a black interior and white lettering.
Starbarks began to pick up steady business after opening. McCarthy-Grybek attributed the early success to the "cage-free, homey interior" of the boarding center. Starbucks, on the other hand, believes the similar name and colors and logo mistakenly lead consumers to believe that Starbucks is somehow associated with the center. McCarthy-Gryzbek argues that the name is "cute and it's not like we sell coffee or anything they do."
Starbucks has requested McCarthy-Gryzbek to alter the company's name, website and logo, or else be shut down. She has responded by offering to change the stars in the logo to paws and revise the green coloring to yellow. Starbucks wants more and still is threatening to go to court to resolve the matter.
In this case, it is a pretty simple win for Starbucks if it does go to court. Starbucks should be protecting its trademarks and any dilution of the trademark?should be prevented at all costs.?The company prefers to settle out of court, as I'm positive they don't want any bad publiclity stemming from the incident.
Trademark cases have increasingly come up over the years as successful companies seek to protect their identities. Most cases rely on two theories, either dilution (as noted above in the Starbarks case) and confusion in the marketplace.
Starbucks may loook like a bad guy by threatening to shut down small businesses, but if the company did not protect its intellectual property, then many different small businesses may feel that it is okay to infringe on those trademarks and suddenly the Starbucks brand loses its value.
Sources:
http://www.suntimes.com/business/15641766-420/starbucks-nibbles-at-heels-of-starbarks-doggie-daycare.html
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/10/09/starbucks-howls-forces-starbarks-dog-company-to-change-name/
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20121009/news/710099962/
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Source: http://picker.typepad.com/legalinfrastructure/2012/10/starbucks-going-after-starbarks.html
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