The
Lost Dog Coffee Shop in Shepherdstown, West Virginia (population 1,734) recently received a formal cease and desist letter from an attorney representing "The Lost Dog Cafe,"
a restaurant located in Arlington, Virginia, sending shockwaves throughout the
small West Virginia town.
Hundreds of town residents have signed an online petition, but the Arlington-based cafe is not backing down from its threats.
On
January 3, 2000, Shepherdstown, West Virginia was the unlikely site of the Peace Talks between Israel and Syria where both
sides were urged to make the hard choices needed to end a half-century of
conflict.
Those negotiations didn't quite work out like everyone had hoped, and it doesn't seem that this
dispute will end anytime soon, either.
The owner of the Lost Dog Coffee Shop has indicated that he has no intention of acquiescing to the Lost Dog Cafe's "trademark bullying."
Someone should remind the parties that there is always a bigger dog on the block: The Lost Dog Cafe located in downtown Binghamton, New York, has a concurrent use right recognized by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office senior to everyone.
Thanks for the blip. I am perplexed and only want to serve coffee and tea to my people. I am a VERY small independent business owner and have no extra capital to hire lawyers in the likely eent that this threat goes to litigation. I raise 2 teen aged boys on this and each week juggle my accounts like a magician..and it's getting tougher by the day. After almost 17 years I am wondering what I am doing here. Garth Emmery Janssen. Owner and founder LostDogCoffee.
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