News of a case against Facebook in logo copyright infringement for the cryptocurrency wallet Calibra has surfaced through sources.
Adding another apple to a legal basket, Facebook and Calibra were both sued in a federal court of New York. Allegedly, they were sued for fallacious designation of origin, unjust competition, and trademark violation under the Act of Lanham.
Facebook in logo copyright infringement with Finco Service
In the court document, it was revealed that Finco seeks permanent relief to terminate the usage of the characteristic Calibra swirl logo when appealed by the plaintiffs seeking preliminary and indefinite directive relief.
Finco Services claimed that it is a Delaware corporation which supplies mobile as well as online banking services through an application on mobile phones, doing business designated under “Current”.
One of the defendants, the company Character CF was paid by Finco in 2016 for the creation of a “branding plan of action”, as stated in the lawsuit. The logo thereby came into existence due to this strategy.
Finco claimed that the design was lodged with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for an array of reasons, including the enablement of cryptocurrency-based exchanges and SaaS services. It also stated that the current marks were used in apps available on both Apple and Google App Stores, alongside debit cards and their website.
The problem, as identified by Finco was that Character designed a logo for Calibra that violates the design formulated for Finco. He called the logos “nearly identical” and explained that he tried reasoning with the lawyers of Facebook and Calibra, with nothing being done to clear the problem. The logos are displayed below:
The lawsuit also signifies that Facebook and Character allegedly contributed to these violations, with JLV, LLC being part of it. This company allegedly owns all Calibra intellectual property.
Apart from this, an oddly pleaded assertion against Character was coined indicating the breaching of the “covenant of good faith and fair dealing”.
However, in actuality, there is no infringement of contract claim in this case, and the company itself is not certain on whether there was a contract, to begin with. It is possible that an individual aside from the plaintiff paid Character for the logo work, so Finco cannot claim a direct breach of contract. This portion of the lawsuit is fairly convoluted and may be subject to a motion of dismissal.
In an act of oversimplification, it can be inferred that the problem in cases similar to this is the possibility of confusion owed to the visual likeliness of the designs.
As an opinion, the designs are quite similar, but the outcome is tough to foretell without viewing the entire briefing on the issue by all of the individuals involved. These cases often include many substantive details, but it is not always infringement. However, if the defendants- i.e. Calibra loses, it could be rather worrisome considering they have launched globally, and it would be costly to rebrand at this point
