Legal Question in Business Law in Virginia

Re: logo

I would be worried that the difference is not enough.

Remember that the logo designers are not trademark lawyers, only artists.

On the other hand, this is an extremely difficult field because there must be hundreds of thousands of companies in the world, and only so many ways to design a logo.

Therefore, if we were exceedingly careful to never come anywhere close to anyone else's logo, all new businesses would have to stop, and we could never have any new businesses (at least not with logos or trademarks).

It is also difficult because to do this "right" would be extremely complicated and expensive. If you had a huge budget, you would need to do a complete search of both copyright design records and trademarks, which is difficult because designs must be described, unlike words. THEN you would need a very technical legal analysis of whether you are close enough or far enough away from the nearest conflicting logo. And even then the attorney(s) could NOT tell you anything with certainty, but could only give you a gambler's estimate of your probability of pulling an objection. If you are sued, it could be very messy and very expensive. They would ask (not saying they would get it, but they would ask) for ALL your profits since you started using the logo.

Yes it is a huge pain. And, no, I don't know how new businesses are supposed to get around all these obstacles. Mabye call your Congressman.

I would be especially worried because they essentially copied the logo OF ANOTHER BUSINESS IN YOUR SAME FIELD.

For example, if you use a trademark or logo to sell insurance and I am selling ice cream cakes, the danger of any consumer mixing us up is very slim. Few people will confuse insurance with baked goods.

But if you are both competing in the same industry, and your logos are very similar, then there is a great potential for consumers being confused between the two of you. That is the worst situation for violating trademarks or unfair practices in causing confusion between companies.

Remember that the primary purpose is so that the public can know WHOM they are dealing with, to protect the consumer's decisions. (Although logos are difficult because they have shades of BOTH copyright design AND trademark implications.)

Unless the logo company has an insurance policy that will cover you if you get sued because of their logo design, I would ask them to try something different.