The visual similarity in both brands, and the probability that users confuse them, is the cause of the demand.
The social media giant Facebook faces another legal controversy with the project of issuing its own cryptocurrency in 2020. On October 10th, Facebook and Calibra received a lawsuit from Finco in the Federal Court of New York for trademark infringement, unfair competition and “false designation of origin”.
Delaware Finco Services sued Facebook for the logo that this second company uses for its token, Libra. In addition, Finco sued his former designer, who also create the logo of Calibra for Facebook. The designer is accused of reusing the design.
The reason for the accusation is trademark infringement. The plaintiff expects the Calibra brand to stop using that logo. Calibra is the name of the company that represents the Facebook token.
Finco is a company that offers online banking services through a mobile application. It does business under the name Current. In 2016, it paid a company called Character SF to design its logo.
According to Finco, that logo was registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The registry covered a number of commercial activities that included the “relationship with a mobile computer software application used to allow cryptocurrency-based transactions”.
The registration document indicates that Finco currently uses its brand in an application available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, on a debit card, and on its website.
The Reasons of the Problem
All started when Facebook resorted to Character SF in search of a logo that represented the brand of its cryptoactive, Libra.
The designs have numerous similar forms, but the logo that Character SF created for Calibra is practically identical to the logo created for Finco and it is already in use and registered.
Until now, the US media reported that Mark Zuckerberg, President and creator of Facebook, will testify to the Congress on October 23rd about the intentions of their companies for the Libra currency.
In addition, he is expected to testify, in the coming days, about how the events occurred, in order to demonstrate that it is not Facebook’s responsibility for Character to create two identical logos.
However, Finco alleged that it presented the complaint to the general advisors of Calibra and Facebook and that they did nothing about it.
Other Implications
Finco’s lawsuit is also addressed to a company called JLV, LLC, which owns the intellectual property related to Calibra. It signals Facebook to contribute to brand violations.
Character must also respond for breaching the “good faith and fair treatment agreement”, a part of the contract that refers to the fact that the same brand cannot be sold to another company or person.
Despite all of this, Character can make a request to reject the lawsuit, because, according to local media, there are inconsistencies in the part of the document that explains the reasons for the lawsuit. These reasons are not explained in a clear manner.
Until the moment, the Court has to determine if the design similarities are a real infraction and, if so, who would be responsible and how they should respond for it.
The truth is that Facebook has not come out of scandals. To start with, because it has a lot of personal information of its users; second, their decision made about launching its own cryptocurrency; and now, because the Calibra logo is almost identical to the logo of Finco. The community remains attentive to what happens.
By María Rodríguez
