The rights to a 47 year old fictional character are currently being hotly disputed in an escalating international legal battle between Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, Fedecafe, who contracted a company to design the poncho-draped, sombrero-shaded Juan Valdez in 1959, and the Costa Rican company Cafe Britt. The character Juan Valdez is said to have status up there with the likes of the Energizer Bunny and similar characters.
The battle over the rights to Juan Valdez began when Cafe Britt started selling t-Shirts in Costa Rica, with the phrase, 'Juan Valdez drinks Costa Rican Coffee' on the front, and Cafe Britt on the back. Fedecafe immediately ordered that these shirts be taken off the shelves, which was quickly achieved. However this was not enough, so they decided to draw up a large contract stating that Cafe Britt must respect the industrial property of Fedecafe and the Colombian coffee industry and stop using the name and image of Juan Valdez. However Britt Cafe refused to sign, causing Fedecafe to launch a $1 million law suit.
As this case continues to develop, it has become even more surreal, with Cafe Britt filing a counter suit of $200,000, citing that a Costa Rican man named Juan Valdez declared in an affidavit that he does, in fact, drink Costa Rican coffee.
Cafe Britt argue that the phrase 'Juan Valdez drinks Costa Rican Coffee' was the title of a Harvard doctoral thesis and the text of a bumper sticker, and that it is in fact a commonly used phrase in Costa Rica, not unlike the phrase 'Pura Vida' and therefore is not subject to property rights.
With conflicting statements about the truth of this statement being received it is hard to decide on the outcome of this ongoing case. |
