Starbucks Corp. v. Wolfe's Borough Coffee, Inc., No. 08-3331

In a trademark infringement action by Starbucks Corp. regarding a competitor's use of the name "Charbucks," judgment for defendant is affirmed in part where: 1) the district court did not clearly err in finding that the Charbucks Marks were minimally similar to the Starbucks Marks; 2) the Charbucks line of coffee was marketed as a product of very high quality -- as Starbucks also purported its coffee to be -- which was inconsistent with the concept of tarnishment. However, the judgment is vacated in part where the district court needed to conduct further proceedings on the issue of whether Starbucks demonstrated a likelihood of dilution by "blurring" under federal trademark law.

Read Starbucks Corp. v. Wolfe's Borough Coffee, Inc., No. 08-3331

Appellate Information

Argued: June 22, 2009

Decided: December 3, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Miner

Counsel

For Appellant:

Mark N. Mutterperl, John C. Rawls and Sarah Silbert, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., New York,
NY

For Appellee:

Christopher Cole and John-Mark Turner, Sheehan, Phinney, Bass + Green, P.A., Manchester, NH