"A Chinese media report Sunday said the Starbucks ruling was the first of its kind under a 2001 law intended to protect well-known international trademarks. Foreign companies have long grumbled that the Chinese government is failing to stamp out piracy of copyrighted or trademarked goods."
[snip]
"Starbucks, which has 8,700 retail outlets worldwide and about 300 on the Chinese mainland, as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan, alleged that ‘Xingbake’ sounded phonetically similar to the pronounciation of ‘Starbucks’ in Chinese.
"’Xing’ means star in Chinese, and ‘bake’ somewhat sounds like bucks, making it a popular name for the local chain, which has 38 shops in Shanghai."