A plucky response to a law firm’s attempt to halt the sale of a beer called ‘Frappicino’ has caused much mirth in the legal blogosphere over the new year period.
After discovering last month that the ‘Exit 6 Pub and Brewery’ in Missouri was selling a beer with a very similar name to its well-known “Frappuccino”, Starbucks instructed US law firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn to act.
The firm’s cease and desist letter to the pub’s owner, Jeff Britton, is re-produced in full below, courtesy of BeerPulse via Above the Law.
Rather than instruct lawyers of his own, Britton decided to handle the response himself. Note, alongside the repeated sarcastic jibes against Starbucks, Britton’s ease with archaic legal language (“heretofore”), the cc-ing in of “Mr Bucks” and, best of all, the inclusion of a cheque for the very limited profits generated by the “Frappicino” to be offset against Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn’s fees.