BRAND PROFILE: STARBUCKS
since we opened in India than I think we’ve ever had before, as well as in Vietnam … and we see some issues in Cambodia. Before, there wasn’t that much awareness. “In China the primary form of infringement
is the use of our Chinese name on a wide variety of store fronts. Also, online sales of infringing products probably are a big issue in China,” she adds. Oktay says: “Outside the US it is mostly
cafés and restaurants that use a similar logo to Starbucks. We
also fi nd Frappuccino (a
trademark registered by Starbucks with the US Patent and Trademark Offi ce in 2005 to cover the drink) all over the place.” But they are fi nding that things are improving
and that protecting Starbucks’s trademarks is getting easier in some areas. Oktay says: “Depending on how sophisticated
the court system and the trademark offi ce is in that country, and how much the Starbucks brand is well known within that market, it becomes easier to protect our brand, especially since we have many stores and our brands are well recognised. “In some of those markets, I think it is improving overall,” he adds.
Beyond trademarks It is not just trademark rights that occupy Starbucks’s IP legal team. A sizeable patent portfolio covering its mobile payment methods, which Oktay claims is the “largest mobile payment system in the US”, has meant the company has been on the receiving end of lawsuits from non-practising entities, otherwise known as ‘patent trolls’. “We did see a lot of patent litigation by patent
trolls in the last few years. It diminished in the last year. T e Alice case changed the patent landscape and ever since that decision we’ve seen a drop in those patent lawsuits,” he adds. Unlike
its well-established logo, the
packaging design of certain Starbucks products is constantly
changing, meaning the legal
team has to keep up to date with its marketing department. Teraberry says: “We have a marketing review
group and they take the initial look at packaging design, for things other than trademarks. Some stores change their design every six weeks, so it’s constantly fl ying through and the main concern is that we make sure we have the rights to use whatever we use. Our group would handle any infringement reports.”
T e sheer size of Starbucks means it is always
attracting ire and aff ection from millions of consumers across the world. On the surface, Fielder’s Dumb Starbucks looked provocative but there was an insistence from him that it was not “affi liated in any way with Starbucks” and that, “in fact, we love Starbucks and look up to them as role models”. But attempts to create parodies can make
it difficult for Starbucks to decide whether to take action against alleged infringement. If Starbucks had chosen to target Fielder then it may have
resulted in bullying
accusations—a big brand unfairly tackling an
individual or small company. And
this problem could multiply as Starbucks continues its march into new territories across the world. Its global IP team, however, is prepared
for more diffi culties, and its experience with such situations should ensure it survives any disputes with its image intact. T e Dumb Starbucks episode had the potential to drag Starbucks into a public relations trap, but its IP team’s carefulness ensured that when the saga went up like a fi rework, it did not go off with a bang.
www.worldipreview.com
World Intellectual Property Review May/June 2015
39
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