D@#* Corporations

This cool coffee shop, Double Shot, in Tulsa, OK, is being threatened with legal action by Starbucks for trademark violation. Starbucks, you may know, produces a product called Starbucks Doubleshot, which is sold in grocery stores. Because Sbx has a trademark on "Starbucks Doubleshot," some legal paper mover decided that they also have the rights to the words Double Shot. The coffee shop has started up a blog to advertise their plight to the world. This is really ridiculous. A shot describes a quantity of liquid. Imagine me trademarking the inch. It doesn't make sense. All Starbucks achieves with this maneuver is reinforcing their image as the big bully uber-corporation, which uses its size to squash the little guy. I have heard of many situations where Starbucks will intentionally build a coffee shop within a few blocks of another independent shop so as to take advantage of their customers, effectively putting the little guy out of business. I like Starbucks, because its convenient being able to know, in any city, that every store will have the same quality product. But in my heart, I like the home-grown store a lot more, and I really don't like Stx business practices. I think I will make it my business to get my coffee elsewhere. You can buy Double Shot coffee here. For some reason, they only sell it by the gallon, which does not readily translate in my mind to pounds, so I can't tell you how the price compares to Starbucks' own coffee. You can email Starbucks here. If you live in Irving, you can avoid Starbucks at Granada Market in Los Colinas and at the Argentinean Bakery next to Half Price Books on Belt Line. H/t Patterico.