Attack of the fake Starbucks

CSR Asia directed us to this story from The Korea Times about Starbucks' many trademark infringement battles around the globe. The lead to the story is about Shanghai's Xingbake chain of coffee houses ("Xing" means star in Chinese, and "Ba Ke" is meant to sound like "bucks"), which was ordered to pay a whopping US$60,000 to Starbucks in a recent lawsuit. Last we heard Xingbake was appealing the ruling. Looking at the graphic that accompanied the story brought back some memories. We have consumed beer (we don't like coffee) at "USA Bucks" in Harbin. Their storefront is even more blatant than their logo. And inside, they sell real Starbucks merchandise -- mugs and the like -- and above the bar, it says "tarbucks." But you can see where the "S" was ripped off the wall.