Facebook is sued over the Calibra logo in the latest hit to Libra
Looks like the weight is awful, horrible, not good, very bad week is not over yet. In addition to major supporters such as PayPal eBay, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard dropping support for Facebook's cryptocurrency project, the logo has now become the center of a legal battle for alleged trademark infringement.
The Calibra logo, a Facebook subsidiary created to oversee the digital currency and the scheduled launch of 2020, is similar to the one Mobile Bank's app has used since 2016, a fact the company pointed out shortly after Libra Announcement in June.
"This is a fun way to try to build trust in a new global financial system ̵[ads1]1; by tearing away another fintech company," current CEO Stuart Sopp told CNBC at that time.
So much of a similarity, in fact, that the company filed a lawsuit against Facebook on Thursday arguing that Calibras logo " Not only confusingly similar, but virtually identical to current brands. "
And it is true, Calibra's logo looks like the corporate brand corresponding to copying another company's homework. Probably because that's what really happened: Both logos were allegedly created by the same designer, a San Francisco-based company called Character, according to CNBC. Character is also named as a defendant in the suit. The company did not immediately respond to Gizmodo's request for comment.
Given that the two were probably designed at three-year intervals, there is a chance that each logo came from completely different teams at the design firm. After all, a curly line in a circle is not exactly ground-breaking design. But for both to be created for digital financing rates and that have the same color palette to boot? It's shady as hell.
This lawsuit is just the latest blow to Facebook's cryptocurrency efforts before it even got off the ground. Libra has requested international review from bank and antitrust officials, with recent reports that DOJ and FTC have opened antitrust investigations only on tech giant fuel these suspicions. Five of the 28 basic support companies that plan to operate Libra's regulatory body have likely looked to avoid similar inquiries.
Gizmodo has reached out to Current and Facebook and will update this article with their replies.
