TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Latin Chamber hosts community events across the Tampa Bay area. They called it Cafe Con Conexiones, meaning coffee with connections.
That was until the nonprofit said they were forced to change their name.
"My organization was provided a cease and desist letter from one of the big Tampa law firms and basically the cease and desist letter said, 'Please stop using the name Café Con Conexiones because it is substantially similar to Cafe Con Tampa,'" Danielle Hernandez, President of the Latin Chamber, explained.
Hernandez said they feel targeted.
"You're really telling me I can't use 'coffee with' in my own language?" Hernandez added.
Cafe Con Tampa, another nonprofit, also hosts community get-togethers.
They trademarked 'Cafe Con', meaning 'coffee with.' They said it took years to come up with their name, and they want to protect it.
"I realized you need to trademark it, and that's what we did. We're just following the advice of our attorneys. Anything other than Cafe Con Tampa is similarly confusing," Del Acosta, one of the founders of Cafe Con Tampa, said.
Acosta said they've had people confused about the two organizations. That's where it can get tricky, registered patent attorney, Anton Hopen, said.
"Actual confusion is extremely valuable evidence. We speculate that there's a likelihood of confusion but when you have evidence of actual confusion, that should be very important to a deliberative body like a judge or a jury," Hopen explained.
Hernandez said responding to a cease and desist would be crippling to their budget as a nonprofit. So, they're in the process of trademarking their new name, Cafecito Con Conexiones.
She told us she feels bullied out of using a common phrase in the Hispanic culture.
"It is in the trademark manual... That very common phrases are not eligible for trademark protection so that one could be a potential defense," Hopen said.
But Hopen said there are three sides to every coin and trademark law, and if you want to protect yourself, trademarking can only gain value.
"It took us five or six years to come up with the right name. Anybody else can do it," Acosta said.
