Chinese coffee firm sued for copying Starbucks' trademark
Photo:Starbucks.com
The Shanghai coffee company Shanghai Xingbake Cafe has been fined 500,000 yuan for infringing the trademark of Starbucks.The Shanghai Higher People's Court also ordered Shanghai Xingbake Cafe to change its name and make a public apology to Starbucks in the local newspaper Xinmin Evening News. In 2003, the Starbucks Corporation and President Starbucks Coffee Company, a franchised Starbucks operator in Shanghai, filed a lawsuit against Shanghai Xingbake Cafe and its subsidiary on the Nanjing Road.
The plaintiff claimed Shanghai Xingbake had violated the rule of fair competition and infringed upon the trademark of U.S. Starbucks by using Xingbake and "starbuck" in its company name and business activities. Shanghai Xingbake, established in 2000, and its Nanjing Road branch also used a green logo similar to that of Starbucks on its menus, cafe windows, receipts and business cards. However it has a picture of coffee cup in the circle, instead of a mermaid.
The Chinese character "Xing" means "star," and the characters "ba" and "ke" together sound like "bucks." The court ruled that Shanghai Xingbake had intentionally used Xingbake in its name and thus infringed the trademark of Starbucks.Starbucks registered its trademark, Xingbake, the Chinese translation for Starbucks, and its logo, a green mermaid in a circle, in 1996 and 1999. Starbucks had more than 200 outlets in 21 cities in China.
Source : www.starbucks.com , www.newsgd.com
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