Starbucks' rainbow-colored Unicorn Frappuccino may be coming back to haunt it. The owners of a cafe in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg have filed a lawsuit against Starbucks claiming that the company stole its drink idea.
The End Brooklyn began selling its lesser-Instagrammed "Unicorn Latte" back in December, and it's had a trademark pending on the name since January. Starbucks' limited-edition drink debuted in April and was in stores for just a week. Unlike Starbucks' Unicorn Frappuccino — which is essentially made of whole milk, sugar, and food coloring — the Unicorn Latte is concocted out of "healthy" ingredients like "dried maca root, vanilla bean, and blue-green algae," USA Today reported. The drinks' main similarities are that they are both bright pink and blue in color and do not contain any coffee.
The owners of The End Brooklyn claim Starbucks' "coordinated social media blitz ... drowned out the fame that any coffee shop in Brooklyn could obtain." They accused Starbucks of trying to "establish its deceptively similar beverage as the main (if not the only) 'unicorn' beverage on social media."
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Starbucks has dismissed the lawsuit against its limited-edition drink as "without merit."
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