Logo design: Legal advice needed.

[jon h]

My wife started a business with a colleague after they were made redundant last November. I work in a design orientated firm (but would not claim to be a designer!)so knocked ap a logo and the usual stationary etc for them, and though I say so myself, I am rather pleased with the logo, which is essentially the main part of the company name in white reversed out of a blue box with the rest of the name underneath the box. All was well until this morning when they received a solicitors letter from another company pointing out that my wife's company logo is very similar to theirs, which, to be frank, it is. They too have a blue box with white text in, and some additional text underneath. To compound the problem, they are in the same business (recruitment) and in the same town. However, they are specialists in IT, whereas my wife's firm does not touch the IT market. The bottom line is that they are suggesting we are trying to "trade on their reputation and good name" by passing the logo off as being associated with theirs. The actual fact is that it is a complete coincidence. I have never seen the logo or even heard of the company in question. My wife has previously dealt with them (they were a client of theirs) but has never seen the logo as all dealings were by phone. I am looking for some advice here... The easy thing to do is change the logo, but there is cost and effort to do this, so I do not want to do this unless I have to.

Thanks in advance

Jon H

[Piglet]

Frustrating though it may be I think you have to bite the bullet and change the logo whilst the company is still young enough that it may not make much of a difference to it.

You don't really want to get into expensive litigation about passing off it will just suck your time and money away (and I'm a lawyer and we don't say that very often - actually we do, people just chose to forget it!). If you're in a similar area and a similar line of work and it's likely to cause confusion you've got a good chance of losing* (*standard caveat about advice based on what you've written not on the full facts).

You could try and get a contribution from them for the costs of you changing stuff to avoid litigation but I think you'd probably be wasting your time.

You'll probably pay a solicitor £200 an hour to look at it for you, the first half hour will be his file set up costs and regulatory issues so for the cost of a couple of hours of work I imagine you could reprint your stationery and then move on to running the business rather than litigating.

[Eric Mc]

I think Piglet is right. You are in the same town so you cannot even claim any exception on a geographical basis (that can be a factor if the complainant business is not a national name).

[Lurking Lawyer]

Sage advice from Piglet.

I'm a litigation lawyer and have dealt with a number of passing off claims similar to the one you describe. They usually end up costing a LOT more than it would cost you to bite the bullet now and get stationery redone.

Remember, if it gets to the stage of them issuing proceedings, any deal down the line will almost inevitably have to include at least a contribution towards their costs, on top of what you have to pay your own solicitor.

[simonrockman]

Change it and be flattered that they think enough of you as a rival to be worried.

[jeremyc]

What they all said.

Or get them to buy your wife's business .....

>> Edited by jeremyc on Wednesday 11th January 15:29

[JonRB]

simonrockman said:

Change it and be flattered that they think enough of you as a rival to be worried.

I agree. Provided the logo doesn't have intrinsic value, it is almost certainly cheaper to just change it.

Just think yourself lucky they're not accusing you of passing off on their name or something else far less easy to change.

>> Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 11th January 15:30

[ukbob]

yep yep...

Why not sit down, and modify the logo whilst simultaneously improving it a little. You win on both counts, it'll cost you nothing, and you'll have a slightly better logo

If you cant beat em, better em

[jon h]

Cheers guys. I will rev up my laptop and get designing! There will be little cost I think, as they have nearly finished their initial supply of digitally printed business cards and most of the business is conducted electronically so there is no need to have had vast piles of stationary printed yet. To be honest, it is more the way the approach was made that annoys me. Diving straight in with a solicitors letter when, as he knows them, he could have started with a friendly chat.

Jon H

[JonRB]

jon h said:

To be honest, it is more the way the approach was made that annoys me. Diving straight in with a solicitors letter when, as he knows them, he could have started with a friendly chat.

Some people haven't the backbone to do that - they prefer to hide behind official letters and things. Same goes for neighbours who call Environmental Health and make a complaint about noise rather than coming round and having a word.

Just take comfort in the fact that getting legal has cost them money.

[superlightr]

time is money.

Solicitors warning letter has worked first time. Hence the prudent way of doing things.

I think you are lucky they are not trying to claim a loss of business from you if your logo is very similar and in the same town. easier to change and chalk it down to experience.