Close or copy of a Maker's Mark.. what to do?

[Tim Mitchell]

Hi all, I have been using my maker's mark on knives since around 2002 and today I came across a guy using a very similar makers mark.  I am looking for some feedback concerning if I should ask him to change his mark or not.  Mine is on the Ricasso and his is on the pommel of the knife.  As you can see the marks are pretty close and his looks like a slightly stylized version of mine, essentially he has just lengthened the legs of the A.  They look close enough to be confused by some customers which is something that I don't want.  Please be free with your comments... I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but I also want to protect my mark.

 

Cheers, Tim.

 

 

[Joël Mercier]

It think there are good chances it is not intentional, alpha/omega being being somewhat universal. Perhaps you could have a polite discussion about it without asking him to change his mark. He may decide to do it on his own.

[Gerald Boggs]

Did a quick search, lot's of folks using Alpha and Omega , as Joel wrote, universal.  Since you're using a common symbol as your mark, I don't think you have any way of protecting it as your property.

[Tim Mitchell]

Thanks Gerald, I did a search for Alpha Omega genearally and it is amazing how many people have this kind of symbol on various other businesses.  When I started out 17 years ago I was the only one who had this kind of symbol in any business, all these are recent designs.

 

He has agreed to change his design to prevent brand confusion, but looking at the number of similar designs out there this may become a problem for me in the future... It is something I will have to think about.  I am not concerned with other businesses, mainly in the knifemaking field being an issue.  There was another knifemaking company who did a sample run with the same sort of logo but they are not operating anymore. 

 

Thanks for the feedback, it was an area that I wanted to tread lightly with and I appreciate your thoughts.

[Gerald Boggs]

5 hours ago, Tim Mitchell said:

When I started out 17 years ago I was the only one who had this kind of symbol in any business, all these are recent designs.

Great that the other guy agreed to stop using it, but you just exposed a common thought I see on the internet.  "If it's not on the internet, then I must be the first"  Lots of folks have never put themselves on-line.  Their business is doing good and see no reason to spend the time, effort and money on a web site. 

[Gerald Boggs]

Not to sound like a Scrooge (one of my heros) but if you want to protect your logo, you're going to have to do more.  Here's the AU trademark site with a search.

 

https://www.business.gov.au/Registrations/Register-a-trade-mark

 

 

https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/quick/result?q=alpha+omega#_663907

Edited November 19, 2019 by Gerald Boggs
trying to be nicer

[Tim Mitchell]

I think that it would be so difficult to trademark my design even with first use as there are now so many similar designs out there and clearly not trademarked either, it would almost fall into common use in current times even though it wasn't back then.  Once you trademark then you have to defend and that looks like lots of distasteful legality which I don't desire.  I am considering my options for the future if this starts to become a more regular thing.