An Auckland café has been forced to change its name after a trademark dispute with a long-running Christchurch coffee company. Hummingbird Café had been open for several month before receiving a letter from Hummingbird Coffee, ordering them to change their name.
“We're a small, local café,” said co-owner Bobby Zhou, who said that he and his partner had researched the name prior to opening. After finding several businesses in a range of industries with the name Hummingbird, they thought nothing more of using the name. “We had no intention of damaging their brand. But getting the letter was stressful enough and we don't have the resources to fight back and deal with the legal side. We thought it was better to just bite the bullet and make the change as requested."
The café, now named Beans N Bites, had to change design, signs, menus and administrative bank details. "There's a lot involved when you need to change everything, but for us the worst part was our customers' perception,” said Zhou. “A lot of them were just starting to get to know us as Hummingbird, and this was the thing that upset us the most.”
Hummingbird Coffee general manager Nick Cowper said that as the first company to directly import Fair Trade Coffee, Hummingbird needed to protect its brand. "The proprietor of the cafe in question acknowledged and appreciated the importance of the protection of our Hummingbird trademark once he was put on notice," also saying that he appreciated their cooperation.
