PayPal sues Pandora over logo similarities

midian182

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PayPal has filed a lawsuit against struggling music service Pandora. It claims the latter’s ‘P’ logo is purposely designed to look like the payment processing firm’s ‘PP’ logo to trick PayPal customers into mixing up the apps.

The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court last week, argues that people will accidentally visit Pandora’s radio app instead of PayPal due to the “unlawfully similar” logos. It’s claimed that Pandora’s design, unveiled last October, purposely copies PayPal’s to take advantage of the company’s popularity.

“Pandora deserted its longstanding logo and latched itself on to the increasingly popular PayPal Logo as part of its efforts to catch up to its competition,” wrote PayPal’s lawyers.

PayPal didn’t hold back when it came to tearing into Pandora. Lawyers noted the “overwhelming” challenges it faces from Spotify and Apple Music while having “no obvious path to profitability.”

PayPal is also worried about the effect the resemblance will have on its recognizable logo. “The Pandora Logo is causing the status of the PayPal Logo as a unique identifier of the PayPal brand to be blurred,” it claims. "Even the slightest delay in locating and using PayPal’s payments platform causes customers inconvenience, and degrades PayPal’s standing with customers and merchants."

Weirdly, PayPal seems particularly worried that people could think it’s expanding into the music streaming business. “This confusion and dilution cause substantial harm to PayPal. PayPal does not want its customers to be deceived into believing that PayPal is losing its focus on payments by moving into music streaming services,” states the lawsuit.

As many on Twitter have pointed out, it’s difficult to argue that the two logos don’t look similar. Gizmodo notes that before filing the suit, PayPal sent 110 pages of social media posts to Pandora demonstrating the brand confusion but the music firm did nothing, leading to the current lawsuit. Over 20 Facebook and Twitter posts are included in the case to illustrate the similarities.

PayPal is demanding an injunction against Pandora to stop it from using the logo.

PayPal vs. Pandora by Nicole Gallucci on Scribd

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If I were either of them I'd take this as a nice opportunity to change up the logo...Those are 2 of the most unimaginative pieces of "art" I've seen.
 
Wow.....people sue people for any reason these days. I may as well sue all these porn stars that have penises that look like mine. brb

Excuse me, but I have a copyright on my penis. I'm going to have to sue you.

Pardon me good Sir, but are you suing over the fact that this is your personal appendage or the fact that it begins with the letter P?

I would argue my Penis is more handsome, dare I say more; Gentlemanly.

I say we set aside the furniture and settle manners with a civilized "sword" fight.
 
I have both installed on my phone. I use neither (by choice) as they are both solid third-place contenders in their markets (never mind that PayPal owns Venmo; Venmo is a separate brand)
 
Really PayPal? Pretty sure people can figure out the difference. One has one 'P', the other has two. I've not had this issue but I did notice they have similar color and shape. But who cares?
 
Interestingly enough I needed to install paypal on my phone today and saw Pandora's app and for a second I thought I already have it.
 
Wow.....people sue people for any reason these days. I may as well sue all these porn stars that have penises that look like mine. brb

If someone creates an identical representation of it and uses it for commercial porn, you can.
 
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