Sometimes A Bunny Is Not A Rabbit

The process of choosing and assigning your company with a logo is a perilous journey. After much soul searching and many creative hours logged, your company finally has the right logo. Imagine then finding out your logo already exists.

Say you own a petting zoo. The crowd favorite is usually the bunnies. You want to let the customer know, our bunnies are cute. So you decide on a cute logo. Simple. A side view of a cartoon bunny. Suddenly, the petting zoo is filled with drunken frat boys looking for a different sort of petting. These frat boys recognized, what you intended as a cute caricature of a bunny, as the universally known logo for the Playboy Corporation.

While this choice of example may seem a little cheeky, these types of instances can easily happen in a real world situation. The issue is even more fraught as your logo needn’t be a wholesale reproduction of an existing one. It can also be too similar in either design or color or shape.

A recent case in Mt. Clemens, Michigan brought this issue to light. The locally owned Conga Tea and Coffee Shop has been notified by the coffee giant Starbucks that their logo, a black elephant in a green circle, bears too striking a resemblance to their encircled siren. Starbucks is entirely in their rights to seek legal action against Conga because of recent changes in the US federal trademark law.

How does one avoid this type of situation? Firstly, it is important to take the time to research your logo before presenting it to the public. A great logo is meant to be universal but also original. You don’t want your company aligned with another company. A specific color or shape can allude to an existing logo, sometimes producing negative effects for your company (see Playboy petting zoo). To safeguard one would be advised to research the psychology of color or to let others research it for you.

Secondly, hire professional logo design company to custom design your logo to your company’s specific needs and intentions. If you choose something from a fly-by-night, online clip art website, it won’t just be derivative but you could face legal action.