The internet’s
fuss over the Dumb Starbucks Coffee Shop had put it in the attention of the coffee
company itself and authorities. Nathan Fielder, Comedy Central comedian,
admitted to building the coffee shop to be part of his show at Sunday Night
Live. While it is a fun parody of the coffee shop, it is completely confusing
simply because it uses the same parodied logo, typeface and the word “dumb” on
its identical menus.
It is
important to note that one knows a parody when the character wears a wig
resembling a signature look of a character, or when an establishment uses a
logo that seems different from the trademark of the original. In this case, the
logo, the position of the logo and the color schemes were too similar to the
original that it had lead many people, including actual Starbucks drinkers,
into the shop.
It is true
that the comedians are protected under the “fair use” policies as the law
protects parody as a freedom-of-speech. However, parody laws only have a
black-and-white approach to parodies. Its summary shows that if the public is
confused, the parody is committing an automatic act of plagiarism or even
worse.
The Dumb
Starbucks Coffee Shop failed to assure many of its consumers that it is not the
genuine Starbucks Coffee Shop, which might mean a copyright infringement case
for Fielders.
