While Opening a New Location, Copper Door Coffee Faces Trademark Struggles

Copper Door Coffee Roasters, a Denver staple since 2006, opened its fourth location on October 14, at 7301 South Santa Fe Drive, in Littleton's Aspen Grove shopping center. Recently, it also expanded beyond the state of Colorado, adding retail sales at select Safeway stores in Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska and South Dakota. But that move is what led to some trouble after sixteen years in business.

Owner Hannah Ulbrich received the bad news after filing a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the name Copper Door Coffee Roasters as well as the company's blends. “We’ve been around long enough that we have some claim to the [Copper Door] name in Colorado,” she explains, “But two restaurants own Copper Door as the trademark, and the U.S. PTO said we couldn’t coexist with them.”

The only way to potentially coexist with the other businesses — both of which are on the East Coast, and neither of which have anything to do with coffee — was for each owner to sign a consent-to-use agreement, giving permission for Ulbrich to also use the Copper Door name.

“One of them signed it and said, ‘Hey, have a good day. I would love to try your coffee sometime,’ so we sent him coffee and a thank you note,” says Ulbrich. “The other guy said, ‘Absolutely not, unless you pay me.' ... He opened ten years after us, but he got to the trademark first," she continues. "We went back and forth — he agreed to sign if we pay $10,000 and all the legal fees. It’s a financial burden we weren’t expecting in the middle of coming out of the COVID stuff, training, hiring and opening a new location.”

At the suggestion of her office manager, Ulbrich set up a GoFundMe. “It felt weird, because we’ve never asked for anything,” she notes. As of October 19, the campaign had raised almost $3,500 of its $15,000 goal.
Ulbrich explains that although she acquired consent to use from the other existing Copper Doors (including the one with a hefty price tag), that doesn’t guarantee she’ll be able to trademark the name. She has submitted an appeal to the U.S. PTO and is waiting to see if the request is approved.

In the meantime, Ulbrich has her hands full with the opening of Copper Door's fourth location inside a former Starbucks. “I was approached by the Aspen Grove Group about a year ago … because they wanted to add local," she says. "We kind of went around a little bit — it’s a different location for us; it’s a shopping center with big anchor tenants, which is a bit different for us, as we’re mostly tucked into neighborhoods. I went down there and saw that it is integrated, and that’s what cinched it for us — it’s walkable to townhomes and apartments.” There are also several other “small fish” in the vicinity, she adds, including Tattered Cover and Timbuk Toys.

The Starbucks, which was there for twenty years, vacated in March. Ulbrich and her team spent the past six months transforming the space into a Copper Door, complete with the brand's signature door wall, a familiar layout, house-roasted coffees, and pastries from Black Box Bakery and Rebel Bread. A terra cotta floor and turquoise accents give the shop a bright European feel compared with its counterparts.

The team tried to bridge the gap left by the former tenant by adding items like frappes to the menu —  something you can’t find at other Copper Doors. But despite the business's best efforts, “we have already had people walk out because we’re not Starbucks,” says Ulbrich.
All of Copper Door’s syrups are made in-house at its Lowry location using ingredients from Savory Spice. After an outcry of dismay when the spring and summer seasonal lavender syrup was pulled and replaced with fall flavors, Ulbrich decided to bottle the syrups for retail sale. Lavender is currently available at all the Copper Door locations, with maple and brown cinnamon sugar to be added soon.

Some of the Denver cafes are still short on employees, but Ulbrich says Aspen Grove is fully staffed with local residents. “It was important to me to hire people for that location that were familiar with that area and integrated into the community,” she says. “We want to make sure we’re part of the neighborhood.” For Ulbrich, it’s a priority that employees have a healthy work-life balance without spending too much time and money on gas and commuting.

“It’s a lot to open, a lot to deal with supply-chain issues, trademark issues. Throw them all together, it’s completely overwhelming,” says Ulbrich. She’s doing her best, but is looking to the community for help.

You can show support by donating or visiting one of the Copper Door locations: at The Yard, 900 West First Avenue; in Lowry at 7581 East Academy Boulevard; by the Denver Botanic Gardens, 1085 York Street; and at Aspen Grove, 7301 South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton.