So I was doing my usual grab the photographer business cards at the local coffee shop, see what they are like, see if I want to network, you know the works. Well I grab one and I think, this lady looks really familiar. Well its a lady who use to be called Photogenix Studio in my town and now two weeks ago switched everything of hers around.

Well I go to the website, and her logo looks JUST like a copy-cat of mine, her business cards are an exact copy of my now going to be old business cards. I am sooo mad, she is in the SAME town as me.

Can I do anything about it? I am so mad, I don't want them thinking it is me! and it is MY logo, it took FOREVER to get it to look like me, I don't want it to be hers too!

if you can get a trademark on it before she does, then you can take legal action. until you trademark it, you have no legal right to do anything. (to my knowledge)

of course, she probably won't trademark it, and while you're waiting on the paperwork to go through, she'll invest more and more money in materials with the logo, LOL. so when you finally do issue 'cease and desist' orders, she'll be S.O.L.

How do you go about doing that?

Here is the link to the US Patent and Trademark site. Like all govt sites its loaded with info and a bit daunting but just start at the top HERE. I saw several other less formal sites when I googled "How to get a trademark".

Another thing to consider would be to run an ad in your local paper showing your logo and making a statement that your business should not be confused with another in town that has adopted a logo very similar to yours. Finally, being honest and up front which is always a good thing, you could contact her and in a friendly but firm manner let her know that the logo she converted to is very similar to yours and that it will certainly cause confusion for her customers and yours.

If none of that works go pull her hair out. jk

-Jeff

Where's Tami's flaming bag of poo? Sounds like a prime candidate! LOL

Jillian -

I was reading your book again a few days ago. You rock, you know that, right?

Shan

it probably also depends on how "close" it is...a different studio name, different letters....you can see where that might lead...

hehehe. its on its way! seriously though i looked them up (you might want to think about putting other studio names in an acessible forum) and they look nothing like your logo. as far as business cards go, there really isnt much you can do. i wouldnt let it bother me too much.

Yah I think I am going to very kindly send her an email about how it wasn't very nice to copy something I worked very hard on. With her logo it has her name with IG in the middle and mine is HG so it is quite close, although not quite as pretty at all. Business cards I am not going to worry about at all because those are changing.

Ok, I looked at the logos and they are similar but not so much so that I'd think it was a copy. it might be a coincidence.... Don't burn bridges over this heather... you might be jumping to conclusions and you're only going to look petty and foolish over this.

just my 2cents

I compared both logos as well. I don't think they look that similar. Yours is more stylized and you have another color scheme going with the turquoise. I wouldn't worry about it. And +1 to Tami's comment about the business cards.

+ 1 to Jess... I don't see any similarity. I doubt she would be trying to copy you.

Yeah, I don't see how they are similar, except for the circle. The colors, fonts, and quality are different.
(Hers is more low-key/sophisticated, yours is more young/quirky)

I know they aren't exact copies, the business cards are the exact copies. She did it on purpose I know b.c she has been very rude to me before and told me she wouldn't let me take her business. I'm not gonna do anything about it but it was very rude of her to stoop so low.

can we see them?

I would see if Matt or somebody can edit your original post to take the name of the other business out. Don't let this bother you, Heather. You're awesome and there's plenty of work to go around for those photographers who get great word of mouth. Seriously. Great word of mouth in this business is everything. It means surviving recessions and being on top of the competition heap. If she's worried about you, well, that's great! Be happy!

I have someone like that in my area...I just ignore him. But he has never tried to copy anything of mine. I would like to see the business cards also.

+1

i wouldn't worry about it. I don't think anyone is going to look at her logo and think it is you.

I don't think the logo looks anything even remotely like yours. An insane amount of portrait photographers have logos with initials & circles - I can think of more than a dozen off the top of my head. Don't worry about it - they're really not even close.

While we are talking about logos... check out my new logo!

Click to view attachment

That's awesome. I'm sending a tattoo artist straight over to put it on your forehead!

I would love to show the cards but I think I left it at my boyfriends house and were going back up to Greenville, so no cards. I am leaving it alone, I was just mad someone would do that. But its no biggie. I am just going to make my new cards EXTRA special now!