Indian coffee shop chain SardarBuksh changes name after sued by Starbucks

An Indian coffee shop chain rhyming with Starbucks and with a similar logo has agreed to change its name after being sued by the US giant.

Starbucks, which entered the vast Indian market in 2012 and now has 125 outlets, began legal proceedings against “SardarBuksh”, which has 25 shops in New Delhi, in July.

“Our name rhymed with Starbucks which is why the court has ruled (on Thursday) in their favour,” Sanmeet Singh Kalra, co-founder of SardarBuksh, told AFP.

The company has agreed to change the name to the not-particularly-different “Sardarji-Bakhsh” within two months.

But Kalra said that his logo, which like Starbuck’s is a circle of green and black with a figure at the centre, albeit his one being a man in a turban and not a mermaid will not change.

The United States coffee giant had begun legal proceedings against the Indian firm at the Delhi High Court in July.

The US chain, which has entered India in partnership with the Tata group, opened its first outlet in Mumbai in October 2012. It currently has 125 outlets in the country. Globally, the company runs 28,000 outlets in 70 countries.