The Importance of Logo Trademarks | BatesMeron Blog (2024)

Creative CapitalismDesign & ConquerLet's Talk Strategy

Leah Cho

When you think of a brand, you usually think of its logo first. The logo is a visual representation of a brand’s identity; it’s typically the most memorable element of a brand. You want people to remember your logo: to know it, love it, slap a sticker of it on their laptop or walk around proudly with the logo visible, broadcasting to the world their support of your company.

Here are some examples of timeless logos our designer, Todd, has written about in the past:

With thousands of logos presented to us on a daily basis, how easy is it to remember–or forget–which brands have which logos? What happens if there’s another logo out there that’s too similar to yours? That’s where logo trademarks come in.

Trademark lawsuits are often active in court as a result of similar logo designs. The standard for trademark infringement is based on the likelihood that consumers would confuse the logos and brands because there is not enough to sufficiently differentiate the two. The court system takes into consideration the reputations of the logos, the similarity in products and services between the brands in question, the targeted consumers and other factors that are more legal than we need to get into here.

In 2007, Apple Inc. filed a trademark lawsuit against GreeNYC, a New York City initiative focusing on reducing global warming emissions to promote a more sustainable future. Below you can see the GreeNYC logo on the left. Apple’s main argument was that the logos were too similar and would confuse Apple users. Taking into consideration what these two companies offer customers, do you find these confusingly similar?

Outcome: Apple Inc. dropped lawsuit because of bad press even after GreeNYC offered to remove stem from logo.

Another trademark infringement complaint was placed by PayPal against Pandora in 2017 as result of Pandora’s rebranded “P” (PayPal on the left, Pandora on the right):

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