Starbucks Logo & Rat City Roller Girls

This has been brought up in a couple of the Seattle blogs that I read for a past couple days. I thought it was really relevant to Karin's data collection on similar logos and how Starbucks sues... well, everyone.

Starbucks is warning Rat City Roller Girls to change their logo or they are suing. Apparently they feel it is far too similar to theirs and The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the Starbucks an extension--giving them until July to file a complaint against RCRGs.


(from the Seattle PI)

The RCRGs ran into this whole problem when they were asked to trademark their logo (used since '04) before a video game about them is released.

"The issue is with the shape of the logo, including what they're calling concentric circles," she said. "[Starbucks]' saying that the dimensions of the circles are too close to their own," said RCRGs' lawyer.

She also said, "The Starbucks lawyer said that the girls on the roller derby team look scary, and she didn't think, in her own personal opinion, (that) Starbucks would want to associate themselves with the scary characters of Rat City Rollergirls," Heraty said.

The article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/364425_sbuxlogo24.html