CATEGORIES
- NYC COVERAGE
- WEB STARTUPS
- WEB NEWS
- CONFERENCES
- WEB TECH JOBS
- VENTURE CAPITAL
- MICROSOFT
- INTERVIEWS
- ADVERTISING
- VIDEO
- ALL TOPICS
- ALL COMPANIES
CONTRIBUTORS
- ADRIAN CHAN
- ALICIA NAVARRO
- ALLEN STERN
- CORSIN CAMICHEL
- DRAMA 2.0
- DARREN HERMAN
- HANK WILLIAMS
- MARK DAVIS
- RICK TUROCZY
- SANFORD DICKERT
- SHANNON CLARK
- Comment on YouTube Down for Maintenance by Killer
- Comment on The Absolute Most Awesome Google Maps Mashup Ever by Google Maps Gets A New Layer ? The NYC Subway | CenterNetworks
- Comment on Google Maps Launches NYC Subway/Public Transit Directions by Google Maps Get Layered With the NYC Subway | CenterNetworks
- Comment on T-Mobile USA Outage ? Service Down by khrtt
Duh Twiddict! Of Course The Red Cross Owns The Red Cross
Update: NY attorney Dan Lewis weighs in on this issue and has an awesome explanation about the Red Cross mark and why it’s in a very special class of trademarks. Very much worth a read.
Twiddict is a service which lets all of you addicted Twitter users send Tweets even when Twitter is down (you know, fail whale time!). Robin Wauters is on the Twiddict team and has a post today that’s a bit disappointing.
Basically the American Red Cross has gone after Twiddict for their usage of the red cross (shown in logo on left). Robin notes, "The Office of the General Counsel of the American Red Cross, claiming that we need to stop using a red cross in our logo, because it violates their copyright. I’ll spare you the details, but basically, the only third parties allowed to use the red cross emblem in their logo are the ones that have been doing so since before the year 1905. For some reason, this list of third parties does not include any Twitter mashups." It seems that logo mark attorneys have quotas to meet!
This is similar to the case brought up by RedHat against the DataPortability group earlier this year. You will note that the red cross seems pretty similar to a lowercase t in red. I certainly didn’t view that logo and immediately realize that the red cross (really a t) was the symbol of the Red Cross.
I’ve embedded the guidelines that were sent to Robin from the Red Cross below. Basically they explain that you would never steal the golden arches of McDonalds, so why steal their red cross?
Robin is seeking feedback on what he should do – either change the color or fight the Red Cross.
Please note that I have determined I now own the blue C – if you use a blue C anywhere, I shall come after you!
uh oh, you know the attorney will be all over that one!
How about http://www.rescuetime.com?
Well, at first I thought the Red Cross was going over-board; perhaps they were a little sensitive from the recent issues with Johnson & Johnson. But, then I went to the Twiddict website, and noted that the little icon in my Internet Explorer address bar is a dead-on Red Cross. Its the exact same icon that shows up in the address bar if I go to the Red Cross website.
Maybe they’re a little over-zealous, but how hard would it be to just change the color of the cross? Green, yellow, orange, blue… And then the issue is resolved, right?
Hey, + I + seem + to + have + accidentally + violated + one + or + more + of + their + guidelines.
In all seriousness, their descriptions of misuse are overstepping their boundaries and probably couldn’t be upheld in court in most cases. Two crossed lines are too common to keep that. I understand the red lines crossed, but heck, even my keyboard has a plus sign on it and a “slanted” version that looks like this: x
Now in regards to this specific case, I do feel that they have a case since Twiddict’s purpose is to save you when twitter is down, which is similar to the purpose of the Red Cross.
You make a very good point with your "save" reasoning – good job!
Erik – please note that I used my "get out of logo issues with the Red Cross" card for that cross. But also note, that it’s a plus sign, not a cross as in the terms that the cross is normally spoken about or of.
Sorry… couldn’t leave it alone.
Your post earlier today about posting jobs uses a cross that is similar to the Red-Cross logo. Despite the use of blue with white, color blind individuals might be mislead to believe the American Red Cross was affiliated with CN.
http://www.centernetworks.com/job-board-special-offer