Dear Mr. Bucks

[Chan]

Anyone who has received one of these letters should appreciate this.  We were sent a rather lengthy one (from a comic book corporation of some note) a while back.  We ceased and desisted.  We had ceased before, but this was our first desist.  Kinda wish we'd have taken Britton's route instead.  His story:

Starbucks is known for aggressively going after small businesses that appear to infringe on its trademark rights.

So it was no surprise that a tiny brewpub in Missouri got a cease-and-desist letter from the coffee chain after it started selling a beer called "Frappicino."

But unlike other businesses that have quietly caved to the coffee giant's demands, Jeff Britton, owner of Exit 6 Pub and Brewery in Cottleville, responded with a sarcastic letter and a $6 check, which he claimed was his total profit from selling three pints of the beer. He posted the letters to Facebook.

Britton addressed his response to a Starbucks attorney and "Mr Bucks" and repeatedly referred to the beer throughout as the "F Word" to avoid "risk of further lawsuits."

"I would like for both [attorney Anessa] Owen Kramer and Mr Bucks to rest assured we meant no deception, confusion, or mistaking in the naming of the beer F Word," Britton wrote. "We never thought that our beer drinking customers would have thought that the alcoholic beverage coming out of the tap would have actually been coffee from one of the many, many, many stores located a few blocks away. I guess that with there being a Starbucks on every corner of every block in every city that some people may think they could get a Starbucks at a local bar. So that was our mistake."

Britton continued, "We also promise to stop production of our 'Starbuck-McDonalds-Coca Cola-Marlboro Honey Lager' for fear of further repercussions."

He insisted that Starbucks apply his $6 check "towards the legal fees Ms Owen Kramer received for her efforts in nabbing Exit 6 in our dastardly F Word naming practices."

"We realize  Mr Bucks probably paid her more than Exit 6 made last year," Britton added. "We just want to help a business like Starbucks. Us small business owners need to stick together."

Riding on the publicity of the letters, Exit 6 is now selling an "F Word" beer.

Here's the Starbucks letter:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/missouri-bar-gets-cease-desist-195615520.html







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[gorgebob]

Windsurfer went after all the shops that used windsurfing in there name back in the day. Hopefully Starbucks will have the same demise and unique coffee shops would then spring up and would make people take a chance and walk into the wonderfull unknown.

[PonoBill]

I've had a few cease and desist letters. My response is generally a lot shorter. F*&k off.

The way trademark law works, it's a good practice to find small companies that don't have a lawyer on retainer, and step on their heads. You can passively ignore such nonsense for quite a while. Often they will go away. Sometimes they won't and then you knuckle. Exit 6's approach is a fine one.

I tried to get Egg Harbor (a fine little breakfast restaurant in Hood River) to send my patented F*&k Off letter when someone sent them a C&D. Instead they changed their name to Egg River. Yuck. A river of eggs is just not a great mental image. You get 14 million hits if you Google egg harbor--most of them restaurants. Good luck in defending that name.

[lucabrasi]

"F word" beer. They fell into a gold mine I think. Who wouldn't want to try that?

[hbsteve]

This reminds me of a coffee company named Bad Ass Coffee, as in donkey.   They have some shops throughout the USA, plus a website.  Their coffee is good.

I'm not associated with them.

[SlatchJim]

Bad Ass is our local, and I love how they freeze coffee for their iced coffee drinks. 

I was listening to the radio and heard a story on Disney trying to copyright "Dia de Los Muertos." Half of latino LA was ready to make mouse asada tacos, and Disney learned it's cultural lesson after an old fashion public relations beat down.  I find the whole copyright of normal everyday words ridiculous and just plain greedy.

[Easy Rider]

I've had a few over the years.
Mostly from taking iconic logos (Hot Wheels, the characters from South Park, etc.) and making them in to Easy Rider logos.  Then making stickers and T'shirts. 

In the cases of the C&D letters - in all cases by the time they found out about our "infringement" we were 3 or 4 "rip offs" down the road.   
So we simply replied - okay. 

[starman]

Windsurfer went after all the shops that used windsurfing in there name back in the day.

Just in the name of accuracy Windsurfer went after anyone who tried to use the trademarked name "Windsurfer". The reason was they didn't want their name to turn into another "Kleenex". Meaning they did not want the brand name to become a generic term. It became a moot point in the end as is this post.