The Venti Mocha ($9) Invades Moscow

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After a series of false starts and a protracted lawsuit against a tenacious "trademark squatter," Starbucks, that symbol of American bourgeois consumerism, is coming to the former Soviet Union. For $9, the fashionable Gazprom oligarch can purchase an authentic venti mocha (In New York City, the same drink runs $4.50). The New York Times reports:

Starbucks first registered its trademark in Russia in 1997 but did not open any shops here because of the economic crisis of 1998. Then in 2002, as the Russian economy was picking up again, Sergei A. Zuykov filed a request with Russian authorities to cancel the chain's trademark because it had not been used in commerce in Russia. He then registered Starbucks in the name of a Moscow company he represented as a lawyer.

Mr. Zuykov, a lawyer and a former car alarm salesman who says he has claimed many brands, defended his stake on the name Starbucks for three years, saying that if Starbucks would pay $600,000, he would abandon his registration. The company refused to pay.

He lost his case in November 2005 as Russia stepped up its bid for membership in the World Trade Organization and hewed closer to international standards for the protection of intellectual property.

Despite this setback, which allowed competitors a head start, Starbucks said it saw plenty of room for more coffee shops in Russia. Ms. Pucik, the Starbucks spokeswoman, cited data from Euromonitor International, a market research company, showing that Moscow has one coffeehouse for every 3,187 people. New York has one for every 365 people, and Paris one for every 126.

Full story.

In 2003, Jackson Kuhl looked at Starbucks's global expansionism.