I have a love/hate relationship with a certain ubiquitous corporate coffeehouse chain. On one hand, you can always find one where no other coffeehouse exists, the internet connection is reliable, and the output is fairly standard and fast. On the other hand, this is one of the effects of the homogenization of the world, and this corporation is downright predatory about wiping out the local independent coffeehouse. And then there is their attack on the monastery.
EDITORIAL
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM LAND OF LATTES
12/26/97
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
(Copyright 1997)
* The Russian Orthodox monks of the All-Merciful Saviour
Monastery on Vashon Island have not received a threatening letter
from tar for bucks.
They have been expecting one, though. Because tar for bucks has
set its legal hounds on the Baltimore Coffee & Tea Co., warning it
to "cease and desist immediately" from using the trade name,
"Christmas Blend," and to consider back payment of royalties.
The monks' interest is their own worldly venture, Monastery
Blend Coffee. Along with Abbot's Choice, Promised Blend and
Byzantium Blend, they offer Christmas Blend, for sale at retail or
through the Internet.
Since 1985, tar for bucks' Christmas Blend has been a
much-beloved stocking stuffer. The law allows that once a name
becomes associated with one company, it may be registered as a
trademark. tar for bucks applied, and in 1992 the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office recognized "Christmas Blend" as its property.
It amazes us that a name this common could be appropriated
from the public domain. "There's no way tar for bucks could claim first
use," says Ted Lingle, executive director of the Specialty Coffee
Association of America. "Yuban," one of America's oldest coffee
names, is itself a contraction of "Yuletide Blend," sold since the
1800s.
While no company owns the word "Christmas" alone, other
companies have won a claim to Christmas This and Christmas That.
Coffee companies alone have staked out The Taste of Christmas,
Santa's White Christmas and The Twelve Coffees of Christmas.
That the Seattle company trademarked "tar for bucks" (from a
character in "Moby Dick") doesn't bother us; nor does its
"Frappuccino," a word combining "frappe" and "cappuccino." But
"Christmas Blend" is more a category than a name. One could imagine
many companies offering Christmas Blends, with no confusion to
consumers or exclusive rights.
But now that tar for bucks owns this particular turf, it has to
expel all trespassers, including Orthodox monks. Hieromonk Tryphon,
abbot, found this attitude beyond the pale.
"Even though this seems to be legal under the law, one
wonders if it is morally right," he said, just warming up.
"Christmas is about the birth of Christ."
The abbot may have been on shaky legal soil, but he was
certain of his moral standing. At the end of his statement, faxed
to one and all, he veritably roared.
"Our monastery will continue offering `Christmas Blend'
regardless of what the corporate heads of tar for bucks have to say
about it," he declared. "If tar for bucks wants to drag our monks into
court, so be it. If they win a judgment against our little
monastery, so be it. If we lose our coffee company profits (what
little we have), or even our land . . . we will simply start over
again somewhere else. We, as monks, serve God and Truth. We will
not back down against the likes of corporate greed."
The next day, tar for bucks sent somebody to talk peace. The
monks refused to parley until after their devotions were done; they
said to come back in January. A tar for bucks spokesman says the
company will do so, and that "we're confident that this will be
amicably resolved."
Baltimore Coffee caved in and renamed its product Christmas
Coffee. The monks held firm. We wonder which party will be most
successful in their worldly endeavors.
We bet on the monks.
