A mobile banking
firm – Current has picked a Trademark Infringement battle against Facebook Inc. over the logo for its new
digital wallet Calibra, with which the social media giant’s cryptocurrency
project Libra has to deal with yet another issue.
Facebook introduced
Calibra as the subsidiary that will oversee its cryptocurrency plans, including
the development of a digital wallet.
According to the
plaint submitted by Current in the US District Court for the Southern District
of New York on 10th October 2019, Calibra’s logo is confusingly similar and
virtually identical to the mark that the plaintiff began using in August 2016.
Now, where the case
turns more interesting is the fact that the designer of both logos is San
Francisco branding firm – Character, named as a defendant in the current
lawsuit. The complaint revealed ‘the logo designing company hadn’t informed
Calibra that the logo it was providing to them appears identical to the logo it
had designed for Current to use for banking services.’
It is still unclear
how all that happened, but Current has filed an application relating to its
logo on June 26th, some days after Facebook unveiled Calibra.
Current’s CEO Stuart
Sopp said that the similarities in both logos are since Facebook introduced
Calibra. He added that his company had worked with Character for around six
months to get the logo. Facebook has all resources and money in the world, and
if it has truly wanted to turn banking services more inclusive and fair, it
should have come up with its ideas and branding, like his team.
In its application
for an injunction, Current said that all efforts like conversations through
emails or over phone calls relating to a mutually acceptable resolution of the
infringement matter had been unsuccessful. The plaintiff added that Facebook
hadn’t responded to its letters objecting Calibra to use the infringing mark,
thus compelling it to knock the door of the court to get preliminary and
permanent injunctive and monetary reliefs. Appearing confusingly identical and
virtually similar to Current’s logo, Calibra’s mark is resulting in irreparable
damages to its reputation, goodwill, and market. Moreover, as the marketing
channels that both companies use to advertise, market, and promote their
services are the same, the infringed logo is likely to generate remarkable
confusion and deception, Current explained.
Concerning such
news, Facebook’s Libra Association, the non-profit foundation formed to oversee
the cryptocurrency, has been losing founding members. Following PayPal’s exit
earlier this month, Stripe and eBay have decided not to support the Libra
project anymore. Visa and Mastercard have also pulled their support out of the
project before their first meeting in Geneva on 14th October 2019.
Observing stern
resistance from regulators and others, the head of Facebook’s Calibra – David
Marcus stressed that the social media giant would not proffer the Libra
cryptocurrency until it has fully obtained appropriate approvals and addressed
regulatory concerns. ✅
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