“Juan Valdez drinks Costa Rican Coffee”

Coffee Controversy Heats Up
By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

In an escalating international legal battle over rights to a 47-year-old fictional character and his mule, Costa Rica's leading gourmet coffee exporter says allegations against it amount to a hill of beans.

The poncho-draped, sombrero-shaded Juan Valdez ranks among nifty marketing characters the likes of the Energizer Bunny, Cap'N Crunch and Mr. Clean. The Colombian National Coffee-Growers' Federation (Fedecafé), which contracted a company to create Valdez in 1959, say he's worth millions. That's why the organization representing 560,000 Colombian coffee growers filed a $1 million suit against Costa Rican coffee company Café Britt for selling T-shirts in alleged violation of the federation's rights to the Valdez name and image.
Spilled Coffee: Café Britt lawyer Víctor Hugo Mora (left) says FEDECAFé has tarnished Britt's image.
Mónica Quesada | Tico Times

The T-shirts, which were being sold at a kiosk in the Juan Santamaría International Airport outside San José, and a shop in Heredia, north of San José, say “Juan Valdez drinks Costa Rican Coffee” on the front, and have the Britt logo on the back. The shirts were pulled from the shelves when the federation first contacted Café Britt in January.

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