EAST LANSING, Mich. — Biggby Coffee, a Michigan-based brand, is suing a company out of Texas for what it says is trademark infringement.
The lawsuit, filed last Friday in United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, alleges that Bixby uses branding and imaging that is purposefully similar to that of Biggby’s.
An affidavit filed alongside the lawsuit describes a situation in which a Biggby owner/operator in Wisconsin encountered a customer that had seen a Bixby advertisement and mistaken it for one produced by Biggby.
The lawsuit outlines how the Biggby name, logo and color scheme has been in use since at least 2008. Biggby feels that Bixby is using a name, color scheme and product design that is similar to theirs in “sound appearance, meaning and commercial impression.”
Biggby alleges Bixby chose the specific color of orange for their branding knowing “that the infringing use would mislead and deceive consumers” into believing Bixby’s products were in fact produced by Biggby.
In the lawsuit, Biggby is asking the court for “damages equal to three times Bixby’s earning and revenue during the time period in which Bixby has engaged in the unlawful conduct described.”
Bixby is requested to stop using all marketing and products that use, what Biggby calls “infringing marks”. The lawsuit also asks Bixby be required to “deliver up for destruction all infringing goods, stationary, signs, advertisements, brochures, promotional materials and other written materials” that contain the alleged infringing marks.
FOX 17 has reached out to Bixby and has yet to receive a response.
A representative for Biggby provided the following statement in regards to the lawsuit:
“Recently, we had a customer come into one of our franchise stores asking about the difference in pricing between our online offering and our in-store offering. The customer showed us the Bixby website pricing, demonstrating that the customer had confused the Bixby online offering with our products. We have federally registered trademarks for our products and services and trademark law is intended to prohibit others from using trademarks that cause this type of customer confusion. That is why we filed the lawsuit.”
