Starbucks Corp. won a trademark infringement lawsuit against China-based coffee company Shanghai Xingbake Cafe Corp. Ltd., news services reported yesterday. The decision affirms a lower court’s December 2005 decision in Starbucks’ favor, the first under a new statute protecting famous trademarks in China.
Forbes.com states the Chinese company “used a green logo similar to that of Starbucks, while the Chinese character ‘xing’ means ‘star’ and the characters ‘ba’ and ‘ke’ sound like ‘bucks’ when used together.”
The Shanghai Municipal Higher People’s Court fined Shanghai Xingbake Cafe 500,000 yuan ($64,000), ordered the company to change its name, and required it to apologize to Starbucks in the Xinmin Evening News, a Shanghai newspaper.
In 2005, The Seattle Times quoted Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz as saying he was “cautiously optimistic” that Starbucks would win its suit, which he characterized as “an important test case for China.”
A detailed description of the underlying case (with photos of the competing logos) is available here.