What do you get when a Seattle no-foam latte-sipping new age, jazz music loving company faces off against a Texas-based brewery? For that answer we turn to The Jammy who considers the issue to be “a matter we feel iz second to none.” Based on the tone and tenor of this and other postings by Jammy, we feel that they are siding with the local Texas beer company, Star Bock Beer.

There is no doubt a joke somewhere about there only being a few things you should never take away from a Texan, however Independent Sources is sure that beer would be on that list (right after the rifle but before the dog). Regardless, here was Independent Sources favorite excerpt from the Jammy’s post:

Edward Harris, a University of Houston professor, who was on the stand for 90 minutes, was paid $350 an hour by Starbucks in April to oversee a national online survey of 450 consumers. Respondents were asked about a new kind of beer, and what other names came to mind when they saw the word. One third of respondents were told the new beer was called “Sunbock,” one-third “Starbock” and the other third, “Star Bock.”Fifty-eight percent of respondents, for example, believed the name “Starbock” reminded them of Starbucks. Harris said that amounts to an “appreciable likelihood of confusion.”But under cross-examination, Harris conceded that in conducting the survey, he did not use the full name of Bell’s proposed trademark, “Starbock Beer,” which Bell’s attorney claims would have significantly altered the survey results.

Was anyone really surprised that they would ask that question under cross-examination? Doy!

Additional reading: Independent Sources first discoverd Jammy when compiling our best Ebonics headlines.

Update: Starbucks should forget Texas and conquer France.

Update: The Jammy has a report on the most recent ruling on this case. In short, if you want this beer you had better be ready to travel to Galveston.

Technorati tags: beer texas starbucks

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2005 at 5:28 pm by Insider and is filed under How Not To Succeed In Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.