A small, locally-owned coffee company is fighting a new legal challenge from Swiss-conglomerate Nestle.
Nestle filed a petition in 2025 to get Seattle Strong to drop its trademark registration, arguing its name infringes on the trademark rights of its product Seattle’s Best.
In March 2026, Nestle filed a second legal challenge against Seattle Strong’s logo.
Seattle Strong Founder Evan Oeflein says he’s concerned about the future of businesses.
“If they’re able to succeed and prevent us from becoming Seattle Strong Coffee because they own Seattle’s Best Coffee, it could happen to any other city in America,” said Oeflein
Oeflein says he will not back down and has relaunched this GoFundMe to help with legal bills as the fight against Nestle continues.
“I just don’t think, especially a conglomerate from Switzerland, should be able to tell a small business in Seattle that we can’t call ourselves Seattle, and especially for something like coffee,” said Oeflein.
Nestle has not responded to KIRO 7’s request for comment.
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