Starbucks wins legal battle over Chinese copycat
Global coffee giant Starbucks has won a two-year copyright battle against Xingbake, a Chinese chain it claimed had copied the US company’s logo and name.
A Shanghai court ordered Shanghai Xingbake Coffee Co. to pay 500,000 yuan (62,500 dollars) in damages after it judged the company had infringed upon the Seattle-based group’s trademark, the China Daily reported.
Starbucks, which has 8,700 retail outlets worldwide and about 300 on the Chinese mainland, as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan, alleged that “Xingbake” sounded phonetically similar to the pronounciation of “Starbucks” in Chinese.
“Xing” means star in Chinese and “bake” somewhat sounds like bucks, making it a popular name for the local chain, which has 38 outlets in Shanghai.
Xingbake‘s green and white logo is also very similar to the Starbucks design.
Source: Yahoo! News.
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