(FranchisePick.Com) Related: WILL PINKBERRY BECOME THE NEXT STARBUCKS?, Pinkberry Gets $27.5 Million Infusion from Starbucks Founder, , Will Pinkberry Stop Offering Franchises?, PinkBerry Settles FauxGurt Class Action Suit; Investigation of Soylent Green Continues
Perhaps Grace and Christina Kim once considered buying a Pinkberry franchise, but decided they could save the money and do it on their own. After all, how hard could it be?
When you don’t know what you don’t know.
The problem with many non-franchise start-up business owners is that they don’t know what they don’t know. So, if you’re thinking about blatantly knocking off a trendy, high profile retail concept, franchised or not, here are a couple of tips.
#1: Try a little subtlety with your infringement. Trademark infringement lawsuits are based on whether you’ve created a “likelihood of confusion” between brands. Think that might be a problem here?
#2: Don’t pick a brand that just got an infusion of $29M.
Venture capitalists are a quirky bunch. They get antsy when people threaten their multimillion dollar investments. When a group like those at Starbucks Howard Schultz’ investment firm invests $29 million into a tiny chain with nothing more than its trendy persona and its Paris Hilton autographs, you can be sure they’ve got a team of lawyers looking to protect both their brand and their own quota of billable hours.
Reference: Pinkberry Gets $27.5 Million Infusion from Starbucks Founder
#3: Hope you get your Cease & Desist Letter before you print your cups
According to a story in The Brown Daily Herald, Juniper Frozen Yogurt is located at 229 Thayer St. in Providence, RI. Sisters Grace and Christina Kim opened the shop with their parents on Dec. 22, 2007.
As I’m sure Pinkberry and Starbucks executives are regular readers of FranchisePick.com, I’ll use this opportunity to ask them to hasten the inevitable cease & desist letter to Juniper Frozen Yogurt, and to explain the definitions of “trademark infringement,” “likelihood of confusion,” “frozen yogurt,” and “all natural” to the Kim sisters before they get in any deeper.
Reference: For Thayer, more sushi but less music
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