Dan Richter, owner of tiny Cafe Roubaix Bicycle Studio in Cochrane, AB and Canadian veteran of the Afghanistan war who operates a tiny bicycle shop in Cochrane is being threatened with a lawsuit by Specialized for the use of name Roubaix which they hold under Canadian trademark law (who knew!).

Read more here:

http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2013/12/09/cochrane-bike-shop-owner-may-have-won-his-case-against-specialized-over-use-of-word-roubaix/

http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2013/12/07/war-veteran-forced-to-change-bike-shops-name-after-threat-from-u-s-bike-giant-specialized/

Ugh … Talk about overkill. Is anyone actually going to confuse Cafe Roubaix with the Speciallized branded anything? All Specialized had to do was to offer to license use of the name Roubaix to Dan for a $1 if they wanted to make a point. I’m a proud owner of ’93 Stumpjumper but I am going to think twice now about ever buying a Specialized product again.