Trouble and coffee brewing on the West Coast

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THE URBANE INDIAN

Far out west, a tempest in a teapot is brewing. Or more accurately, a coffee pot. Where the Pacific Ocean meets the Great White North, Haida Gwaii (better known as the Queen Charlette Islands) has become an unusual battle ground between the coffee empire known as Starbucks, and the lesser known Haida restaurant/coffee shop empire called HaidaBucks.

HaidaBucks, a small Native owned and operated organization in Massett, B.C. (population 1,200), opened in 1999 as a 60-seat restaurant. Co-owner Darren Swanson describes the restaurant as having a traditional West Coast longhouse facade, and offers everything from quesadillas to seafood specials. Yes, they do serve coffee, though one wonders if the trouble HaidaBucks is in centres around the fact that it's serving Seattle's Best, Starbuck's competitor.

(Seattle, by the way, is a legitimate Aboriginal name, that of a great chief famous for his "We are all strands in the web of life" speech, who probably never drank coffee. I digress.)

On March 4th of this year, Starbucks Coffee Company, in their efforts to "protect the public from confusion and deception," sent a Cease and Desist letter to HaidaBucks requesting that it stop the use of a confusing variation of the Starbucks name and trademark.

"Under trademark law, we are required to take action against any individual or entity that is infringing our trademark rights. Trademark law does not permit us to be selective in protecting our rights; anytime there is infringement or dilution, we must "police" our mark, regardless of the infringer's size. We actually risk damaging and possibly losing our trademark rights if we fail to do so."

Swanson argues that Starbucks is barking up the wrong West Coast rainforest tree. He maintains the "bucks" part of his establishment's name refers to Aboriginal culture, not coffee culture.

"Aboriginal men were called bucks, and we're also Haidas, so HaidaBucks. That's how we came up with the name. Lots of men out here are called Haida bucks. It's kind of our pet name."

In actuality, the term "buck" is often used as a pejorative term for adult males across North America. The Delaware reserve, Moraviantown near Chatham, is colloquially referred to as Bucktown. Though not an expert, I also believe "buck" is a term used in the same context in the Black community.

"Originally there were four Haida guys that owned the place, so we decided to call ourselves HaidaBucks. It has nothing to do with Starbucks," said Swanson. "When we were younger, we had a local basketball team called the Bucks. It only makes sense that we named our business after ourselves."

What's in a name, you and Shakespeare might ask. Or perhaps better paraphrased, A coffee, by any other name, would still smell as bitter.

Ironically, Starbucks took its own name from a character in Herman Melville's novel, MOBY DICK, which has long since passed into the public domain.

Aye, there's the rub, quoting Shakespeare (affectionately known to Native people as Shaking spear).

Since Canadians love a good underdog, HaidaBucks has been inundated with public support. Their new website-www.haidabuckscafe.com-is expecting more than 100,000 visitors this month.

As a result of such a significant outpouring, two significant events have given the small Aboriginal entrepreneurs a second wind. First of all, Starbucks blinked. The publicly traded, global conglomerate offered to give the small cafe until the end of the year to change its name and to "reimburse HaidaBucks for some portion of the reasonable costs associated with changing its trademark."

Fat chance, said Swanson.

"We've been using the term 'bucks` in our Nations for far longer than Starbucks has." Joseph Arvay, a lawyer with Arvay and Finlay, barristers, has offered to represent them. HaidaBucks has pulled out the major guns because Mr. Arvay is no stranger to representing Canada's Indigenous peoples. He represented Delgamuukw before the Supreme Court of Canda and is now counsel for the Haida Nation in its Aboriginal title claim.

David versus Goliath? White corporate America versus a small Aboriginal business? When it comes to this "brew"haha, let's just hope what they say is true ... size doesn't matter.