“Uh, the copyright department at Caterpillar working overtime? I’m all for property rights but this seems a bit excessive unless the coffee shop is including Caterpillar tractors in their merchandising or something.”
Not about coffee. Simple filing by CAT to protect their trademark CAT which Cat and Coffee is using on apparel.
Yep. Caterpillar does a nice business on their licensed apparel, and if they don't defend their trademark every time, then the next time someone will simply point to this case say, "See, they don't defend their trademark, therefore it is null and void." Even if they lose this one in court, they benefit from demonstrating a strong defense of their trademark. Don't blame Caterpillar. Blame trademark law.
Logo on coffee shop merchandise looks nothing like the Caterpillar logo
Did you forget the sarcasm tag, from my eye thd logos are not similar at all.