Gill-ty as Charged?

Since 2018, when Mountains and Mermaids — whose main line of business is nautically-inspired wearable art — filed with the USPTO to register its “Sirens Brew” mark to sell coffee beans and ground coffee, the company has drawn the legal ire of Starbucks as it aims to protect the association that coffee + siren = Starbucks. At the time, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board sided with Starbucks and asked Mountains and Mermaids to stop using the mark. It hasn’t. I tend to side with the small business typically but they are really asking for it here — the design is obviously different but for better or worse, Starbucks does “own” the combination of siren and coffee.