Local bar owner takes on coffee giant over beer name

By Stephanie Guadian
ABC13 Eyewitness News

(3/10/04 - GALVESTON, TX) — What's in a name? Apparently a lot to corporate coffee king, Starbucks. The reigning coffee maker is taking on a small bar owner in Galveston - not over coffee, but over his beer.

Inside Galveston's Old Quarter Acoustic Café, owner Rex Bell remembers how he came up with the name for his new beer.

"One night we were in here and somebody said, 'Give me a Lonestar. No, make it a Shiner Bock.' So I said, 'Well, I'll give you a Star Bock,'" Rex recalled.

A short time later, Rex found a brewer and applied to the US Patent and Trademark office for exclusive rights to the name Star Bock. It wasn't long before the name and the beer caught on.

Bar patron Louise Nichols said, "I like Star Bock. It's smooth, it's… You know, I don't want to sound like a commercial. I just like it."

But not everyone is as enthusiastic about the new brew. One day Rex got a letter from the Starbucks corporation demanding he stop selling Star Bock beer. The company even threatened litigation, claiming the two products sound too similar.

"I told the lady, the attorney for Starbucks, I explained the whole story about Lonestar and how it came up," explained Rex. "And she said, 'Mister, we're going to beat you. You can't beat us.' I was just amazed at her arrogance."

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