I’m Bill Tsutsui with another Postcard from Asia from the Center for East Asian Studies.

Repeat after me: doo-yoo kah-peh rah-teh seh-gop . Roughly translated, that means “triple soy latte” in Korean. Why do you need to know this? Because, in a modern-day David and Goliath story, Starbucks has lost a lawsuit to Starpreya, South Korea’s coffee franchise. Even though Starpreya’s logo features a woman’s face in the center of a green circle, uppercase letters and two stars, South Korean lawyers argued successfully that the choice of name and logo is NOT an infringement of Starbucks’ copyright. Thus far, the South Korean patent court is the only one to find in favor of the independent underdog; Starbucks won similar suits in China and Japan. So, would you like that doo-yoo kah-peh rah-teh seh-gop with or without sugar?

With thanks to John Schneiderwind and Maija Devine for this text, from the Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Bill Tsutsui. Wish you were here.