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DES MOINES, Iowa (CN) — Starbucks filed suit in Iowa federal court Thursday claiming its union infringes the global coffee merchant’s trademarks by using them for promotional materials, social media and merchandise bearing the company name and logo imitating the famous “siren” inside a green circle.
Starbucks claims that Starbucks Workers United dilutes the company’s registered trademarks by using the Starbucks name and a similar circular green logo on the union’s websites, apparel and coffee mugs sold online. The company also accuses the union of using Starbucks’ protected name and logo in connection with social and political issues that are unrelated to union activities.
“No other company, organization, or person, including defendants, should trade on Starbucks goodwill, or dilute the Starbucks brand, by selling merchandise that uses the Starbucks name or close variants of its logos,” the company says in its complaint. In addition, it says its name and logo should not be used “to wrongly suggest that Starbucks made, sponsored or endorsed statements on social, political or geopolitical issues.”
The company said labor unions have the right to organize and to use an employer’s name for protected union activities and to exercise their right to free speech to express their opinions, but it said “that is not a free pass to use, dilute, and damage a famous brand for any purpose, such as merchandise sales and statements on social, political, and geopolitical issues having nothing to do with protected union activities.”
In one example of the union’s social and political statements that Starbucks claims caused confusion among consumers, the union made statements that were interpreted by some as supporting violence, which caused backlash against the company.
Starbucks said it has sought to negotiate a settlement of its trademark claims with the union, but that the union instead filed suit in April in Pennsylvania federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that it may continue to use the company name and logo.
The union said in a statement that Starbucks has stood in the way of negotiating a contract.
“Union baristas have never stopped fighting for a fair contract, including by proposing reasonable measures that have gotten the parties back to the bargaining table where, despite Starbucks’ roadblocks, they continue to show up in good faith to move forward and land an agreement," the union said. “We believe it’s imperative to finalize a fair union contract and resolve all legal issues between Starbucks and Workers United quickly — including these cases and more than 560 outstanding unfair labor practice charges — so we can all move forward together.”
As for its suit filed in April in Pennsylvania, the union said it is “simply seeking a declaration that it may continue to use the name and logo that have been core to organizing the 12,000-member union of Starbucks baristas for the past five years.”
The Starbucks complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa by Jeffrey D. Harty and Lynn C. Herndon of Nyemaster Goode in Des Moines, with assistance from New York City-based Sullivan & Cromwell. The coffee giant names as defendants Starbucks Workers United, Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board and Iowa City Starbucks Workers United.
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