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Some new unions are going through an unexpected hurdle as they attempt to cut price first contracts with big-name employers: getting sued for the names they’ve chosen.
Starbucks is the newest firm to file an mental property lawsuit in opposition to its staff’ union. The espresso chain claims that the group, Employees United, is “diluting” the Starbucks model and violating emblems with the identify and brand of its marketing campaign, Starbucks Employees United.
Each Medieval Instances and Dealer Joe’s have made comparable trademark claims in opposition to their respective employees’ unions, Medieval Instances Performers United and Dealer Joe’s United. In all three instances, employees say no cheap individual would confuse the unions with the businesses, particularly when the unions are publicly accusing the businesses of unlawful union-busting.
Within the case of Starbucks, the corporate despatched a letter to Employees United final week after the union marketing campaign’s account on X, previously generally known as Twitter, posted a message expressing “solidarity with Palestine” following the Hamas terror assault on Israel. Starbucks warned the union to cease utilizing the Starbucks identify in its marketing campaign identify and imagery. The union refused.
On Wednesday, the 2 events filed dueling lawsuits in federal court docket. The union, which has organized greater than 350 shops since 2021, requested a court docket order assuring that it may well proceed utilizing the identify Starbucks Employees United. Starbucks requested a choose to power the union to drop the Starbucks identify “and other identifying symbols.”
“The union said it has an obvious reason for using the name Starbucks Workers United: ‘to identify the employees who make up the union.’”
The corporate claimed it’s been inundated with indignant calls and emails from prospects who conflated the union marketing campaign’s Palestinian solidarity tweet with the corporate itself. It additionally flagged a submit on X from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) calling for a boycott of Starbucks and linking to an article in The Washington Free Beacon, which was first to report on the dust-up.
The union mentioned in its court docket submitting that it has an apparent motive for utilizing the identify Starbucks Employees United: “to identify the employees who make up the union.” Moreover, the union mentioned it doesn’t need the general public to confuse it with the corporate.
“Particularly given Starbucks’ egregious anti-union campaign,” the union asserted, “Workers United does not want workers to fear that the Union is somehow controlled or sponsored by the company.”
The union additionally alleges that Starbucks defamed it via “false public statements indicating that Workers United supports terrorism and violence.”
The union mentioned the “solidarity with Palestine” tweet was not approved by union leaders and was deleted after about half an hour.
Mario Tama through Getty Photographs
Final 12 months, Medieval Instances filed a lawsuit accusing its employees’ union, the American Guild of Selection Artists, of making “consumer confusion” via the identify of its marketing campaign, Medieval Instances Performers United, and its brand, which options medieval imagery like swords and castles.
The AGVA, which has unionized two of Medieval Instances’ 9 U.S. castles since final 12 months, known as the corporate’s lawsuit “a grotesque attempt to retaliate against workers for exercising their legally protected right to form a union.”
The dinner-theater chain didn’t fare properly in its authorized effort. A choose tossed its trademark infringement declare in September, saying there was “no plausible likelihood of confusion.”
“In sum, neither a side-by-side comparison nor the overall impression is confusingly similar” between the 2 logos, wrote the choose, William Martini of the U.S. District Court docket for the District of New Jersey.
In his resolution, Martini alluded to case regulation defending unions that use an employer’s identify inside their very own for identification functions.
The union has filed an unfair labor follow cost in opposition to Medieval Instances, saying the mental property lawsuit was meant to silence and intimidate employees.
In July, Dealer Joe’s lodged its personal trademark declare in opposition to Dealer Joe’s United, a brand new labor group that has gained union elections at 4 shops since final 12 months.
The corporate claimed the union’s sale of merchandise in its on-line retailer may trigger “significant reputational harm” to the grocery store. The gadgets on the market embrace a reusable procuring bag that claims “Trader Joe’s United” and reveals the union brand, a raised fist clenching a field cutter.
The union known as the corporate’s claims “frivolous” and accused it of making an attempt to “weaponize” trademark regulation in opposition to its personal employees. The lawsuit has not but been resolved.
In a letter to the corporate, the union’s attorneys known as the Dealer Joe’s lawsuit “just another in your continuing attack against labor.”
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