Wednesday, May 31, 2017

trademark - Our company's new logo looks similar to another logo. Will this be a problem in the future?



We are into Fintech space. We are doing a rebrand and the logo we have finalised unfortunately looks similar to the one on left in the below image. Now we are in a dilemma that if we should go ahead with this or not. Can anyone tell us if we can trademark this? Is it going to be a problem? Can the other company file a lawsuit against us? Also, did you see any other logo similar to us?




After your feedback, we have updated it like this. What do you think?


enter image description here




Answer



Back when I was doing commercial art for my living, I'd occasionally run across news of some lawsuit based on a logo (symbol) causing confusion. The standard is (or was, anyway) not whether the logos can be distinguished when side by side, but whether seeing Logo B makes people think it's a new version of Logo A. If that happens, the owners of Logo B are in some legal trouble.


Given that there are very few differences between the two logos, and none of the differences are significant, it's not hard to foresee major trouble. So yes, do change it now, while it's still inexpensive to do so.


(While you're at it, design it in one-color black. To get that halftone effect you have now requires either halftones, which weakens the color, or some tricky work on the press, which more than doubles the cost. It was a common heuristic back in the day that anyone who can't design a good logo in one-color black can't design a good logo at all!)




Suggestions for differentiation:




  • rotate the symbol 45 degrees anti-clockwise





  • reverse the symbol out of a very dark (just short of optical-black) green square. You can use cool, neutral, or warm green. Cool reinforces the pine-tree motive, but is distancing; warm is more approachable, but reduces the tree effect; neutral leaves everything alone.




  • reverse it out of a dark green triangle, base down. A triangle reinforces "tree" and feels "stable", but can also feel "spiky". Same warm-cool caveats.




  • reverse it out of a dark green circle. A circle is friendlier and more inclusive, but is much less tree-ish. Same warm-cool caveats.





  • go to 5 needle pairs rather than 3 (going to 4 is unlikely to be visually distinctive enough, but you could try it)




  • add 1 or 2 pinecones -- but mind out that it doesn't end up reminding people of a WW2 SS collar patch!!




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