This is pretty funny!

http://www.businessinsider.com/dumb-sta ... hop-2014-2

Go ahead.. get a short stick and poke the bear.

I saw this last night and laughed when they adamantly claimed they'll be immune from consequences in court because of the loophole they're trying.

Still funny though.

Dumb Starbucks legal defense is based on the claim that it's an obvious parody which is protected under the 1st amendment. They also claim it is "art" and from what I've seen reported they are giving away the coffee for free and not charging for it. The lawyers a few articles have cited have said that it may be challenging for Starbucks to prevail against them in court.

Then there's also the issue of publicity. Seems to me like it would be dumb of Starbucks to sue them as that would only generate more publicity and attention. If Starbucks is smart they'd just ignore it and let it go away.

Curious to see who is behind this and what it's all about.

Starbucks has been very aggressive in the past in shutting people down who make fun of them.

I remember a middle of nowhere, small New Hampshire roaster, called Black Bear (? I think)), getting sued for calling their dark roast "Charbucks." Starbucks got mocked endlessly for this effort, and it was expensive for them; but they lawsuited Black Bear out of business, and deterred everyone else. It doesn't seem likely that they will ignore 'Dumb Starbucks;" especially since they don't need to win, they just need to file new actions until it gets too expensive for the pranksters to continue.

yup that's the thing, plenty of times (not just coffee lol) where a company really has no standing against a smaller outfit/mom pop... but they have deep pockets and can stall and stall and refile and appeal this and that over and over 24/7 till the end of times lol... essentially their willing to pony up the cash to the point where the other company either has no choice but to fold or give up b/c of cost involved.

I assume this is a publicity stunt. Once they've had enough media attention and too much corporate lawyer attention, they'll rename their business, perhaps with a press release like "'Cafe Blah Blah' formally known as 'Dumb Starbucks'".

Blackbears website is still up, and they still have charbucks blend. Ironically I was on there site last night for other reasons.

With the amount of effort and quality of product involved, (e.g. printed paper cups, similar interior construction, and even exterior signage) I have to think this is a high-budget tv-show or movie stunt, or even "actual" *$ re-vitalizing their own name.

I mean, you don't just go get a few thousand parody coffee cups because it would be funny... If this is truly an art gallery, then I assume the dept. of health could shut this down pretty quickly declaring any "food items" are inedible due to lack of permits?

another_jim wrote:Starbucks has been very aggressive in the past in shutting people down who make fun of them.

I remember a middle of nowhere, small New Hampshire roaster, called Black Bear (? I think)), getting sued for calling their dark roast "Charbucks." Starbucks got mocked endlessly for this effort, and it was expensive for them; but they lawsuited Black Bear out of business, and deterred everyone else. It doesn't seem likely that they will ignore 'Dumb Starbucks;" especially since they don't need to win, they just need to file new actions until it gets too expensive for the pranksters to continue.

Actually, Black Bear is alive and doing well, still selling their "Charbucks" blend. Their legal battle with Starbucks is legendary among the trademark bar. The case went back and forth from the trial court to the appellate court several times, with Black Bear prevailing in the end. The holding relied on the theory that they were not doing business as "Charbucks," but only gave that name to a single product (a dark roast), so that there was little likelihood of consumers being confused that they were buying a Starbucks product.

You can buy a bag here: http://www.blackbearcoffee.com/products/all-coffees