In March this year, Plantronics and Polycom announced that they would continue as Poly. In April, however, there was a complaint against the brand new company about its logo. PDP Gaming stated that the new logo was very similar to that of the PDP brand. Now that logo may no longer be allowed to be used, says UC Today.
PDP Gaming has asked a federal court in America to prohibit Poly from using the logo while a lawsuit is pending. If the judge agrees with the request, that would have serious consequences for Poly. The company has actively displayed its new logo as part of its marketing strategy.
Moreover, problems with logos and copyright infringement are not always solved quickly. It can take years for a judge to officially decide whether the logo is owned by Poly or PDP Gaming. If the judge now chooses to allow the prohibition, Poly may not have a visual identity for some time.
Lawsuit
PDP Gaming accuses Poly of violating a trademark law, and claims that the logo is partly problematic because both companies sell headsets that can be used for gaming. PDP Gaming states that it hired a graphic designer in January 2018 to create the new logo and looked at the design in March 2018. Retail partner GameStop began selling PDP-logo headsets in October 2018.
However, Poly claims that its logo has been independently designed with the support of a third party design team. That logo was designed months before the launch of the company. At the end of February, Poly submitted an application for a trademark. However, PDP Gaming only saw the trademark after Poly launched their new logo.
Solution
It is positive for both companies if the problem is solved quickly. The two organisations are open to resolving the problem through discussions, and top people even had a videoconference in March. A letter sent after the conference suggests that Poly PDP Gaming can pay to drop the claims of the logo. Poly may agree to pay the costs incurred in developing headsets with the logo.
PDP Gaming’s lawyer, John Alpay, says the company also wants to investigate a potential deal to resolve the lawsuit. But since then, the discussions on this subject have been stopped.
On 26 July, the parties will be heard on the PDP Gaming motion.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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