Local food chains finding inspiration from international brands is a common thing but the problem comes when the inspiration transforms into using similar branding for making profits. Coffee giant Starbucks has filed a case against ‘SardarBuksh’, a Delhi-based coffee chain for copying its name and logo and branding purposely. SardarBuksh has five outlets in Delhi and a lot of times people do get confused due to similar-sounding name and logo that this coffee seller has. Starbucks currently has 125 outlets in India and runs 28,000 outlets across the globe.
Leading to the court’s decision, Sardarbuksh’s name has been changed to Sardarji-Buksh and the US-based global coffee giant is asking for logo change also.
“We always prefer to resolve trademark disputes informally and amicably whenever possible, and to prevent confusion among customers,” a Starbucks spokesperson said, on talking about the case. SardarBuksh will promote itself with new branding for its upcoming 30 outlets, while the existing 5 are waiting for the final verdict.
Rohit Khamboj, one of the representers of SardarBuksh said that neither he nor the other co-founder Sandeep Singh Kalra had ever visited a Starbucks. He even defined that the name comes from the combination of Sardar and Buksh and that the logo was also designed by the team.
From the above statements, it looks like that a new brand war is on its way as Kalra and Kambhoj, have asked senior lawyers to look into the case while Starbucks is being represented by a popular law firm ‘SS Rana’.
Note that Sardarbuksh is not the one to have a similar sounding like Starbucks, there is a cafe in Pakistan by the name of Sattarbucks.
Also Read: 10 Craziest Knockoff Fast-Food Restaurants Around The World
A similar case made news in 2015 when Ludhiana-based Mr Singh Burger King had to change the name to Mr Singh Food King after Burger King took filed a case against it.
The court has fixed next hearing date on 18th September and it will be interesting to see how both companies react to the final decision.
