On March 3, 2010, the Supreme Court promulgated its decision in Coffee Partners Inc. v. San Francisco Coffee & Roastery Inc. (San Francisco).
On March 3, 2010, the Supreme Court promulgated its decision in Coffee Partners Inc. v. San Francisco Coffee & Roastery Inc. (San Francisco), ruling that Coffee Partners’ use of the trademark ‘San Francisco Coffee’ infringed the trade name ‘San Francisco Coffee & Roastery Inc.’, even though the latter was not registered with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and not in actual use.
The controversy began June 2001. San Francisco discovered that Coffee Partners was about to open a coffee shop under the name San Francisco Coffee. For San Francisco, the shop’s name caused confusion in the minds of the public, because of its similarity to San Francisco Coffee & Roastery Inc., registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in June 1995.
San Francisco demanded that Coffee Partners stop using San Francisco Coffee, and thereafter filed a complaint for infringement and/or unfair competition. Coffee Partners, which filed IPO applications for the registration of the mark ‘San Francisco Coffee & Device’ for class 42 in 1999 and for class 35 in 2000, argued that its mark could not be confused with San Francisco Coffee & Roastery Inc.
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Philippines, Supreme Court, San Francisco, coffee, trademark, infringement
