JANUARY 15, 2018 Trademark trouble over F1's new logo F1 is heading for trademark trouble after launching its new official logo. Some fans were dismayed late last season when Liberty Media revealed that it is replacing the sport's iconic 'flying F' logo of the Bernie Ecclestone era. But also dismayed is the stationary company 3M, according to F1 business journalist Christian Sylt. He wrote in the Telegraph that the new F1 logo "bears a striking resemblance" to an existing 'F' logo already registered by 3M for a brand of compression tights. A 3M spokesman said: "We have not had any discussions about the logo with the other party. We are looking into this matter further."
As a consumer I am very confused as to which logo represents which brand. I thought I was shopping for 3M products and ended up at a... Formula 1 ? (whatever that is...) website. This has hampered my shopping experience and I for one am extremely displeased at the company that chose to copy the logo of one of my favorite brands. Now I just hope this review shows up in a search by the legal team so something can be done about it... Just doing my part
Actually it’s more of a problem for Liberty because others could come out with similar logos and they would have a tough time defending it with this 3m one around before them. I don’t see 3m caring.
But 3m wouldn’t be averse to getting some free money in damages I bet........ confusing the brands is as likely as Ford F-150 buyers confusing their trucks with the ferrari f1 cars, but they still changed the name!
I'm no legal expert in this area but I think 3m probably would not care. It does not damage their brand and, in fact, it could be an advantage to them. But the problem for Liberty is that others could make something similar and it would be harder to defend that it's too close when they created something that already looks like a previous brand logo. Its funny but a simple google image search would have pulled this 3m logo up pretty quickly.
And 3M has to make an effort to defend their logo or they leave it open for poaching by others in the future.
Exactly. I guess it depends, as the mayor says, on whether they really care, but money makes the world go around, and the logos are almost IDENTICAL, not just a little alike Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app
I'm not a lawyer but I have studied business law, the F1 logo totally rips off 3M. Now, they might not care because they are completely different markets, and even though my last post was in jest, someone somewhere might seriously confuse the two and then they have a case. 3M yearly revenue is $30B... copyright/trademark infringement is a drop in the ocean, its nothing to have their lawyers draft a few letters.
Yep. But it's not completely different markets. F1 was planning to put this logo on a new line of F1 clothing.
As a long time CI designer, I'm more interested in how the design passed all the research programs and the approval levels within the agency before it was pitched to the client! Somebody (design director) needs to get out of the shop a bit more.....
Everything has already been done before. The question is -- does it cause a conflict or damage to someone else. In a lot of cases, it's a judgement call. Given the 3M product is not in the auto market, it's probably not an issue at all. It would be hard for 3M to argue that their logo for some compression socks looks similar to Formula one "hurts" them in some way.
I think 3M is really reaching. Their logo doesn't have a flippen 1 in it. Also F1 should have kept the Iconic flying F logo. What would they Google to have seen this before hand?
I don't think damage is the main issue. When F1's lawyers came after our "Friends of Formula 1" Facebook page, even they indicated there was no worry that we had actually damaged F1 or that we were trying to pass off anything we were doing as somehow being something produced by F1. Nor was there any concern on their part that we were in competition with them. After all, it's just a Facebook page. It doesn't sell anything or make any money. They said the bottom line was that they had to aggressively defend their trademark in every case possible or risk weakening their legal ability to defend it going forward (ie letting it slide could establish a precedent that could be used against them down the road). I've also read and heard the same thing about numerous other such cases over the years. They (Bernie's lawyers) were actually quite amenable and didn't seek damages, etc. They just wanted us to change the name, remove all logos even remotely resembling F1 logos, etc. So then, Facebook.com/GPAmericas was born. A similar thing happened to Formula1Blog recently. It's now called theparcferme.com, but I don't know how aggressive LM's attorneys were in comparison to Bernie's. F1 is very aggressive in defending their brand. I'm sure 3M will be as well. Will it probably be settled out of court? I'd say so. F1 knows the deal.