CAFÉ chains have long been criticised for their identikit look, but a Chinese company has taken this business strategy one step further by using not only the Starbucks business formula, but its name.

A café in Shanghai operating under the name “Starbuck” is serving the same tall lattes as the American Starbucks around the corner.

In Mandarin, both Chinese cafés use the same name, Xingbake, and also share the familiar green and black logo.

Having looked on in frustration for four years, Starbucks, the US-listed franchise owner with 83 outlets in China, is now suing its rival for copyright infringement in a brewing coffee war as affluent Chinese discover an alternative to tea.

“We will take legal steps to protect the value of our trademark and protect the public from confusion and deception,” the world’s biggest operator of coffee stores said yesterday.

Starbuck, the alleged impostor, has ignored repeated warnings by lawyers Baker & McKenzie to remove all logos and names similar to its client’s.

The local shop registered the name Xingbake in January 2000 — four months before Starbucks opened its first store in Shanghai.

“We invented Xingbake as our brand when we planned to start a café business in Shanghai and it is just a coincidence that our name is the same as the Chinese version of Starbucks,” said the alleged impostor’s general manager. “The logo was designed by our own staff.

“To be frank, I hadn’t heard of Starbucks at that time, so how could I imitate its brand or logo?”

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