Cleveland's Copper Moon Coffee Shop Denies Trademark Violation Allegations in TikTok Video Lawsuit

Copper Moon Coffee, the postcard-sized, nondescript café on Euclid Avenue in Downtown Cleveland, has denied the majority of allegations brought in a federal lawsuit filed over a TikTok video posted last year.

The basis of the suit began in August, when TikTok user @superheroeveryday2 recorded a Copper Moon barista refusing to sell her a coffee she had intended to hand to a homeless person out on Euclid.

All which seemed to prompt a PR nightmare.

“The first thing he said is if the coffee is for him [the homeless man] I cannot serve you,” @superheroeveryday2 said in TikTok post, which has since been taken down.

“I will lose my job,” the barista said, according to a report by The Daily Mail. “The policy is that that causes trouble for our employees because it has people harassing customers out front.”

More than 8,000 commenters had their say, either calling for a boycott or sympathy for overworked baristas. The issue was that many directed their acrimony, the lawsuit says, to the wrong Copper Moon in question: the Copper Moon based in Lafayette, Indiana; not the one Cleveland.

“Many individuals have made negative posts or comments about [Copper Moon Indiana] with the belief [they] were affiliated with” Cleveland’s store, the complaint reads. “Many individuals have indicated they would not purchase [our] products because of the TikTok video.”

The Indiana store’s “goodwill and public perception will continue to be harmed,” if Cleveland’s store “is allowed to continue to infringe on the trademark.”

Copper Moon in Lafayette has been using its name widely, under operation by Brad and Carey Gutwein, since 2007, its website reads. A document from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “Copper Moon” shows registration since October of 2004.

Cleveland’s store, which owner James Orlando opened up in The Statler in 2019, registered its LLC—the Orlando Coffee Company—ten years later than the Lafayette brand, in September of 2014.

The Lafayette store alleges that Orlando did not reply to an August cease-and-desist letter to change its branding, yet tried to separate its store via its own messaging.

“Not affiliated with the coffee roaster, Copper Moon Coffee, LLC, of Lafayette Indiana,” its Facebook profile now reads.

The Lafayette store’s complaint does not specify exactly what it claims its damages are from the PR confusion, yet it’s asking for “compensatory damages” and “three times the amount of actual damages” from the mix-up.

And of course for Orlando to totally rebrand.

All of which Orlando, through his attorney, denied this week. The Lafayette store, the reply reads, “fails to state any claim against [us] upon which relief may be granted.”

Regardless, both stores suffered a barrage of one-star reviews—colloquially called “raiding”—following the August TikTok video. Cleveland’s store has amassed at least 26 negative Google Reviews since.

“Won’t allow you to buy food or drink for the unhoused,” one review read. “Disgusting.”

“Maybe impressionable sheep who drinks up tiktok rage bait?” Copper Moon (the Cleveland one) replied.