Good news for the owners of Canoe Coffee Roasters on Laurel Avenue. They have a reprieve in their forced rebranding, after being threatened with a lawsuit by a U.S. company for a supposed trademark infringement.
"Our lawyers have been fantastic," says owner Jenn Upshaw. "They were able to secure what's looking like a six month grace period to phase out the Canoe brand, and to rebrand."
Canoe Coffee's lawyers are currently doing a trademark research for several new names for the Kelowna restaurant.
"So, we have a top four," says Upshaw. "I can't say what they are yet. Two of those are suggestions we received from Instagram and Facebook. And two of them are ones that our Canoe team in house came up with."
Upshaw adds, there may also be a chance for the restaurant's customers to pick the new name.
"We'll have to see how the trademark search goes," she says. "Some of them may be eliminated by nature of them being similar to an existing company. We'll see if we're left with more than one, then we may throw it out to the public and see what people think. Perhaps let everybody help us choose a new identity."
The U.S. company originally gave Canoe Coffee Roasters only ten days to change their name.