Simi Coffeehouse Says It Has Grounds to Keep Its Name

In a nondescript strip mall tucked into the shadow of a multiplex movie house, a coffee war is brewing.

Ron Fiducia and Scott Hinton run a tidy little coffeehouse called the Coffee Connection--a name the massive Starbucks Coffee Co. wants changed.

Why? Because the fiercely competitive Starbucks chain owns a copyrighted trademark to the Coffee Connection name dating to 1975, while the tiny java joint in Simi Valley only began using it in 1994.

Starbucks--which doesn’t have a store in Simi Valley itself--charges that the shop run by Fiducia and Hinton is violating trademark laws and sapping business from a string of Boston coffeehouses it owns called The Coffee Connection, Inc.

And unless Hinton and Fiducia stop using the name Coffee Connection, Starbucks threatens, there are ample grounds to sue.

But Fiducia and Hinton say that changing their shop’s name would cost thousands of dollars--and baffle dozens of loyal customers.

“When they call our shop, people will get, ‘Joe’s Coffee’ or something,” said Fiducia on Thursday. “And the first thing they’ll think is, ‘Another little guy’s gone out of business.’ And they’ll hang up.”

Co-owner Hinton was equally glum: “We got a book [on litigation] and it says the average cost to fight something like this is $128,000. Either way it costs us a lot of money. Either way, we lose.”

But Starbucks spokeswoman Cheri Libby explained that her company’s approach is simply a good, defensive business practice.

“It’s nothing personal,” Libby said. “It’s something we need to do as a company in order to protect the trademark right we own.”

It all began on Monday when a certified letter from the Starbucks corporate counsel arrived in Simi Valley, shocking the Coffee Connection guys like an espresso double shot.

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“As you can no doubt imagine, we were disturbed by the fact that you have apparently adopted and are using our proprietary trademark,” read the letter from Starbucks corporate counsel David Landau. “We must demand that you cease and desist from the further unauthorized and unlawful use of the name Coffee Connection.”

Problem is, the Coffee Connection logo--with the O’s in each word spelled out in a steaming cup of java--is emblazoned on everything in the store from mugs and T-shirts to bills and bags of beans.

The Coffee Connection shelled out $2,500 for the backlit sign that beckons moviegoers after nightly shows, Fiducia said. It spent $1,500 on printing plates for T-shirts and coffee cups, another $1,000 on labels and who knows how much for stationery, fictitious name certification from the state of California, and ads in the Yellow Pages.

So, Hinton and Fiducia thought about it for a few days.

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They researched the trademark and found that--indeed--Starbucks owns it. But Starbucks only acquired the 20-year-old copyrighted name in March, 1994, when it bought the Boston-based chain Coffee Connection Inc.--two months after the Simi Valley store.

Because of that and the fact that they are about 3,000 miles away from Boston, the shop owners fired back their own response Thursday in a letter to Starbucks.

“ ‘You’re confusing us with a company in Boston,’ That’s what our letter said,” Fiducia said. “ ‘You’re Starbucks, you’re not Coffee Connection. You’re in Boston. What is it about us that bothers you?’ ”

He and Hinton say they cannot afford to get into any kind of legal battle, but if they can avoid it, they don’t want the cost and hassle of a name change that could disrupt their daily flow of 200 customers--or plans to open another branch at the new Iceoplex skating rink in Simi Valley.

But Cheri Libby of Starbucks said the conflict is not only in Boston. The Coffee Connection name is in use on a Starbucks-owned mail-order business that delivers gourmet coffee beans and java paraphernalia across the country. And Starbucks already has Starbucks Coffee shops in Westlake and Camarillo with plans to open one in Thousand Oaks, too, Libby said.

The most loyal of Coffee Connection connoisseurs--the caffeinated regulars who belly up to the bar each morning for their double-half-decaf cappuccinos and cafes-au-laits--see it as a hostile takeover.

“To think that somebody would come in and try to override all the work you’ve put in just because they’ve got more money and are more established is just kind of ludicrous,” sniffed Betty Canavan. She vastly prefers the java blends at Coffee Connection, saying: “We’ve had coffee at Starbucks. . . . It’s like McDonald’s, compared to Wolfgang Puck’s Granita.”

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Alex Conserva said the Starbucks atmosphere is too mall-ish, too much like a fast-food chain. “This is more of a real coffee shop,” he said.

But the Coffee Connection’s owners tried to maintain a more philosophical approach.

“There’s no way to fight them,” Hinton said. “If we’re wrong, we’ll get a contest together and pick another name.”

Fiducia added: “It’s going to happen: You start your own business and things go wrong. If you get all upset about everything that comes up, you’re not going to have any fun.”