April 2018. Here’s an interesting case from Estonia, where coffee multinational Starbucks has failed to halt the registration of the Coffee House logo as a trademark. Since the word Starbucks coupled with the mermaid are the two distinctive elements in the Starbucks logo, the Board of Appeal of the Estonian Patent Office concluded there was no risk of confusion.

No infringement

Stark contrast

However, the ruling is in stark contrast to Starbucks’ European victory over the Coffee Rocks brand not long before. According to the European General Court, Coffee Rocks did infringe Starbucks’ logo. And yet you could argue that the green Coffee House logo is even closer to that of Starbucks in appearance. A possible explanation is that Starbucks isn’t (yet) active in Estonia.

Infringement