A Missouri bar owner responded to a cease and desist order from Starbucks with a sarcastic letter and a check for $6.
According to the New York Daily News, concerned about trademark infringement, Starbucks asked bar owner, Jeff Briton, who had been serving a beer referred to by customers as a "Frappicinio," to stop using the name.
Instead Briton, owner of Exit 6 Pub and Brewery in the St. Louis suburb of Cottleville, decided to supply the chain with all the earnings he received after serving the drink, a grand total of $6. Briton posted the letter he received from the corporation on his business' Facebook page and has received over 2,000 likes.
Daily News reported that the letter from the company is claiming the brewery had been offering "Frappicino" which was identical to the company's trademarked, creamy frozen beverage, Frappuccino.
Attorney Anessa Owen Kramer noted that the Seattle-based company "is the owner of a number of world-famous trademarks, including the well-known FRAPPUCCINO trademark" and that bar's use of Frappicino "is likely to cause confusion, mistake."
"It has recently come to Starbucks Coffee Co.'s attention that Exit 6 Pub and Brewery LLC ("Exit 6") is or was using the mark of FRAPPICINO in connection with a stout-style beer crafted by the brewery. The FRAPPICINO mark only differs from Starbuck's Coffee Co.'s FRAPPUCCINO mark by one letter, and is phonetically identical," the letter stated.
In response to the legal document, Briton told CNN he believed customers were referring to the bar's vanilla creme and chocolate coffee and that the spelling was a typo. Briton responded in a sarcastic letter.
"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," he wrote. "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."
The letter said Exit 6 will no longer use the term but instead refer to its beer as the "F Word." He posted a copy of the $6 check to the pub's Facebook page.
Starbucks spokeswoman Laurel Harper said the company is happy that the bar cooperated and that Briton was "respectful."
"This was a respectful request asking Exit 6 to refrain from using the term 'Frappicino,' which differs by only [two] letter(s) from our 'Frappuccino' product," Harper told CNN. "We always prefer to resolve trademark disputes informally and amicably, and we appreciate them respecting our request to avoid confusion among customers."
Starbucks will not cash Briton's check, Harper said.
