Independent cafe in Brixton takes on hedge fund-backed cafe chain for its name

A family-run vegan cafe in Brixton has launched a lawsuit against the London expansion of a major US coffee chain seeking to compete with Starbucks, claiming its "very similar" brand was damaging its reputation for its "indie vibe".

The David and Goliath trademark dispute is between South London's Blank Coffee, owned by 34-year-old Warner Newman , and Samantha McKinson, 32, and their popular factory-based cinnamon rolls against Blank Street, a New York brand whose owners are funding their expansion plans with the help of venture capital.

Blank Street Coffee moved to the UK last year, saying it wanted to acquire 25 locations to add to its more than 50 stores in the US, in part of a global expansion funded by $60m (£50m) raised in 2021.

Last summer, the New York Times wrote that the chain, whose business model is built around high-volume automated espresso systems, had become "suddenly essential". The company wants to make London its "second city" after New York.

Blank Street Coffee founders Vinay Menda and Issam Freiha say they want to challenge Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. The American company, however, ran into a legal dispute with Blank Coffee. The independent south London cafe, founded in 2015 by Newman and McKinson as a food cart for city workers, transformed into a café in Brixton in 2018, with a popular plant-based menu. /p>

The owners strongly oppose the registration of the Blank Street Coffee trade mark in the UK, claiming that it "would amount to misrepresentation likely to cause confusion as to origin of their products".

The couple's statement of reasons for their opposition to the trademark registration, claims that the 11 Blank Street cafes in London are already "causing real confusion and harm to the adversary, in that customers question the inferiority of the Blank Street product and, assuming the adversary has sold out, complain about it".

They add recent press reviews: "Blank Street coffee has been reported as tasteless and weak."

In a separate legal letter, Newman and McKinson said they believe the American Coffeehouse chain, established in 2020, had indeed copied their name and the "distinctive mint green/white/black livery, simple lettering…and tried hard to copy the “indie vibe” of their cafe. The US company denied this.

Newman and McKinson added that one of the Blank Street founders sought to "follow" their company on social media after being featured in a 2020 Daily Telegraph article.

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