American Starbucks Won the “STARBUCKS” Trademark Lawsuit in Shanghai

January 4, 2006

The lawsuit of American Starbucks against Shanghai Starbucks has finally come to its end after two years of litigatioins. On December 31, 2005, Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Court rendered the judgment in the first instance. The court recognized the trademarks “STARBUCKS” and “星巴克”(Chinese transliteration of “STARBUCKS”) owned by American Starbucks as well-know trademarks in China, and ordered Shanghai Starbucks Café Ltd. to pay the damages of RMB500,000 to American Starbucks and to remove the words “星巴克”（Chinese characters） from its company name because of the trademark infringement.

Shanghai Starbucks disagree with this judgment and intend to appeal soon. Mr. MAO Yibo, a manager of the Shanghai Starbucks Ltd., said that they didn’t know about the existence of the American Starbucks when they used the Chinese mark “星巴克”, and that the Court’s judgment on “bad faith” is groundless. Mr. MAO further stated that their plan for business expansion has been postponed because of this lawsuit, and that if they change the company name right now, impact to the company would be too harsh. Mr. MAO also stated that his company would appeal to the Shanghai High Court. American Starbucks, on the other hand, stated that it would accompany Shanghai Starbucks till the end of the lawsuit.