LA frim sues Starbucks for stealing coffee lip balm product

Los Angeles-based Balmuccino sued Starbucks again for stealing its ideas and suppliers for a coffee lip balm product.

Starbucks, who looks forward to presenting its case in court, insists that the claims are without merit.

Balmuccino’s first suit against Starbucks, filed in 2019, was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction as the court didn't have the authority to hear the case.

Balmuccino's suit claims Starbucks "effectively stole" the lip balm idea after it took a meeting with Mesh Gelman, who was then the company's head of product development and an SVP in 2017.

The suit says Gelman asked for a lot of information on the product to run the idea while duly compensating and giving proper credit to Balmuccino for the idea.

But in 2018, Starbucks came up with a product that has "identical," specifications that Balmuccino had given Gelman.

In April 2019, as the suit notes, Starbucks released a line of lip balms based on the S'mores Frappuccino.

The suit claims Starbucks broke its verbal agreement to follow a non-disclosure agreement.