Juan Valdez Drinks Costa Rican Coffee - Legal Disputes

Legal Disputes

In 2006, The Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia received an injunction preventing the Costa Rican company Café Britt from selling t-shirts with the slogan. Fedcafé then filed a $1 million lawsuit on July 7, 2006 after Café Britt refused to sign a contract, stating that it must respect the intellectual property of Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia and refrain from using either the name or image of Juan Valdez. Café Britt filed a $200,000 counter-suit, after producing an affidavit from a Costa Rican man, Juan Valdez, certifying that he does drink Costa Rican coffee. Café Britt also argued that the phrase is so common as to be ineligible for legal protection.

Fedcafé maintains that Café Britt agreed in early 2006 to stop using its trademarks; Pablo Vargas, the manager of Café Britt, denies that such an agreement existed. The only and final agreement, according to Fedcafé's proposal of January 19, 2006, consisted in the total recall of the t-shirts. This is the agreement Britt accepted and executed on that same date. In exchange, Fedcafé committed to dismiss any further legal process.

The "other" Juan Valdez was discovered as early as 1999.

Café Britt presented a criminal case against Gabriel Silva, Federacafé's manager, for presumably defamatory statements, as well as taking civil action against him for damages of $1,000,000. Mr. Silva was notified in Colombia through diplomatic channels. All charges have since been dropped. When asked to comment, Silva's lawyer, Kyle Hoskinson, stated, "I'm glad this is all over."