Coffee company fights back after being sued by Nestlé for copyright infringement

A cold brew coffee company in Seattle is being sued by Nestlé over claims that its name is an infringement on its Seattle’s Best brand.

Seattle Strong, the company in question, has responded in a video saying the lawsuit is ‘an ill-fated effort by a large multinational company to control the use of the name of the city ‘Seattle’ in coffee-related products in an attempt to bully a small, local coffee company from Seattle’.

The petition was filed in the US Patent and Trademark Office in April 2025, with the aim of revoking Seattle Strong’s trademark.

Evan Oeflein, founder of Seattle Strong, said the brand was devised during a University of Washington school project back in 2017. It sells and distributes coffee across hundreds of sites in the Pacific Northwest, along with customers in Texas and Alaska.

“They seem to think they own the name ‘Seattle’,” said Oeflein said in the response video where he noted that Nestlé is in Switzerland.

The lawsuit alleges that customers may misinterpret Seattle Strong’s products as those within the Seattle’s Best range and damage Nestlé’s branding.

Nestlé said in the petition that its Seattle’s best is ‘well-known and famous for years’, claiming that it’s a ‘household name’ whose products encompass ground coffee, bottled coffee, K-Cup pods and others.

Seattle’s Best was launched in Seattle in the 1970s and was bought by Starbucks in 2003.

Nestlé bought the brand from Starbucks in 2022.

Seattle Strong said that Nestlé hasn’t provided evidence that customers have been confused by the different brands and argued that Seattle Strong could not be misconstrued as an arm of Seattle’s Best.

Seattle Strong applied for its brand trademark in 2022, citing its use since 2017, while Nestlé has stated that Seattle’s Best has been used since 1989.

Seattle Strong said Nestlé’s lawsuit was ‘merely an attempt to threaten, harass, and pressure Respondent into giving up its mark and/or forcing Respondent into an unfavorable settlement’.

"We're true Seattle coffee," said Oeflein, per Fox 13. "We're roasted in Seattle. We're brewed in Seattle. Everything is actually done in Seattle."

He continued: “The United States Patent and Trademark Office says we earned 'Seattle Strong' and we want to keep it.

"I think they want to crush us before we can get in there and really compete with them.

"I think there's a great opportunity to support kind of a David vs Goliath story here.”

FOODBible has reached out to Nestlé and Seattle Strong for comment.