Fintech CEO Claims Facebook 'Ripped off' His Bank Start-up's Logo For Cryptocurrency Project (cnbc.com) 69
The founder of online bank Current claims Facebook copied his company's logo for the social network's bid to reinvent the global financial system. From a report: Stuart Sopp, a Wall Street trader turned start-up CEO, told CNBC that he used a San Francisco-based design firm named Character to create his start-up's logo in 2016. That firm also worked on the secretive crypto project that Facebook unveiled this week, according to a LinkedIn post from Ben Pham, creative director for Character. Anthony Harrison, a spokesman for Facebook, declined to comment for this article. Character did not return calls and messages for comment. "This is a funny way to try and create trust in a new global financial system -- by ripping off another fintech firm," Sopp said in a phone interview. "Facebook has all the money and resources in the world. If they truly wanted to make banking more inclusive and fair, they should've come up with their own ideas and branding, like we have."
Copycats (Score:2)
When was the last time Facebook innovated ANYTHING? Yeah, that's right, virtually never. They're just a copycat company with deep pockets.
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Well, I mean.... Apple invented the retail price tag markup!? $999 monitor stand!
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AC (Score:3)
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Facebook described (Score:3)
Facebook: Privacy Rapists, and now Logo Rapists as well.
#deleteFacebook
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Does deleting a Facebook account also delete the shadow profile that Facebook routinely builds on Internet users [vox.com] based on other users' contacts and views of Facebook's Like button script on other websites? Can an Internet user without a Facebook account delete Facebook's shadow profile on the user?
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You don't understand (Score:2)
"You copied exactly what I already did!"
"...so you DO understand the creative process!"
-- Dilbert animated series
Obviously (Score:4, Funny)
Thumbs up.
This is a textbook deep-pocket play (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Current uses Character to design logo.
2. Facebook uses Character to design logo.
3. The two Character-designed logos look similar.
How in the world could those facts expose Facebook to liability for "ripping off" the logo rather than Character for selling the same general design twice?
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Facebook is at fault because Facebook is the one using a logo that infringes on Current's logo. if Character failed to perform as required by their contract in producing the logo, then they can be sued for that breach of contract, but nothing in that contract can absolve Facebook of the legal responsibility to not infringe other people's intellectual property.
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addendum -
according to this post :
https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... [slashdot.org]
Current never registered a trademark on their logo (which is really stupid of them). in trademark law, though, the fact that Current has used it for 3 years will give them rights to it in the financial industry.
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in trademark law, though, the fact that Current has used it for 3 years will give them rights to it in the financial industry.
That's a bit of an overgeneralization. Current may get limited rights on a state-by-state basis scoped to the geographical territory in which they operate if they can show that a consumer likely would be confused into thinking that Calibra is Current or is somehow associated with Current. That's a lot of hoops to jump through for not much potential benefit.
And it's not at all clear how much genuine confusion there could be anyway -- it looks like the side-by-side logo comparison in TFA was contrived to m
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the infringement is due to Libra using a confusingly similar logo. Where that logo came from is irrelevant. the use is what infringes on Current's logo, so Libra is liable for that infringement. Libra can then, in turn, go after Character for designing them a logo that was practically identical to the one they designed for Current and recoup any losses they experience as a result of that fraudulent action by Character.
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Except it's now really a trademark in usage, not copyright. So the design company is really scot-free - they designed a logo and that's it. Granted it was similar to one they did before, but as far as anyone will be concerned, Facebook is liable simply because they're using a trademark similar to this guy's.
And yes, just like you have patent lawyers to do searches on patents, y
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How in the world could those facts expose Facebook to liability for "ripping off" the logo rather than Character for selling the same general design twice?
It's a genius move by Character to get FuckedBook in trouble.
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It is illegal to receive stolen property. Doesn't matter if you didn't know it was stolen.
No idea how this works with trademarks, though. Probably "the company that bought the most politicians wins".
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No idea how this works with trademarks, though.
It looks like Current hasn't even applied for a trademark on this logo. See my last post here [slashdot.org].
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Doesn't matter if you didn't know it was stolen.
False - whether it matters or not, in the U.S, depends on the state.
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Should a tilde with a circle around it be trademar (Score:4, Interesting)
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Deutsche Bank has got a common typographical symbol with a square around it [wikimedia.org]. That's not much different.
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Your thoughts on what should be allowed to be trademarked is is 100% not the real standard for a trademark. You can trademark all sort of "simple" ideas. The company I work for is 3 common letters. Many companies are identified by 2 common letters/numbers (w/ a trademark for such identification). Two characters, superimposed, one of which is very "uncommon" is definitely able to be trademarked.
A really easy example is "3M" but there are literally thousands of trademarks that are far simpler than this log
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Should you really be able to trademark a common typographic symbol with a circle around it?
I agree it's an interesting question, but it doesn't appear to apply here. The only trademark application by Current (Finco Services) I see is this one [uspto.gov], which is a text mark for the word "CURRENT" in all caps. No picture mark. (This mark was approved a long time ago, btw, but I'm guessing Current switched horses to the circle-tilde after filing and so now they can't fulfill the requirement of showing they're actually using the "CURRENT" mark in commerce, so it's at risk of being deemed abandoned.)
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Should you really be able to trademark a common typographic symbol with a circle around it?
Should you be able to trademark ${thing} with ${unique_change_to_thing} around it?
When you phrase it that way the answer most definitely is yes. Don't forget a large number of company logos are nothing more than stylised common typographic symbols. At least the ~ is somewhat unique compare to say, ... the letter f.
I should just quit IT and do branding (Score:5, Insightful)
The same design firm did the branding for both logos. Being in IT architecture/engineering, I've been subjected to many "$10000 PowerPoints" by the various management consultant firms. Every consulting company ever resells the same materials over and over again to different customers. It's even more insulting when you know you've seen the same presentation with different corporate colors/logos...you think to yourself, "The CIO/CEO just paid these idiots $3M to come in and pass off Company X's 'digital transformation' initiative as groundbreaking new research, all while changing only the initiative name and logo." ...and then you think to yourself, "I could easily go around drawing random squiggles for $2M. Heck, I'd do it for 10% of that. All I need to do is come up with explanations for the way we want the curves to make people feel, or the emotion that that particular shade of mauve evokes in our target customers.
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As with all other things "artistic" it's not about the squiggles and lines.... it's about the story and presentation.
so how much (Score:1)
Fintech? (Score:2)
What is most upsetting (Score:2)
I'm clearly in the wrong business.
Approximately (Score:2)
The tilde means approximately in math.
Somehow not what I'm looking for in a payment provider.
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Was it ... (Score:2)
RollMaster (Score:1)