Is copying of great things and showing our hand work, legal or not?

Did Verisign Steal Axis Bank’s Logo?

In 2010, Verisign sold its authentication business unit to Symantec (the makers of the Norton Anti-Virus suite) for $1.28 billion. Verisign manages two of the world’s 13 Internet root servers.

Shortly after the deal was made, Verisign introduced a new “V” logo.

What is unbelievable is that it looks like a complete rip-off of Axis Bank‘s logo; just flipped vertically.

The Axis Bank logo was introduced in the year 2007 after the bank, one of India’s largest private sector lender, announced that it would be changing its name from UTI Bank and that it would be exercising a complete re-branding of the bank.

Source: http://blog.archit.in/2011/09/did-verisign-steal-axis-banks-logo/

By the way, has anyone heard of the automobile company, Mitsubishi? Their logo is:

Can you find from where Axis Bank had stolen the logo from? Filling the gaps!!!

Source: Myself!

Now CEans, the right question is,

Is copying of great things and showing our hand work, legal or not?

When a top most security company has done something like this, and when a big bank firm has done something like this, what is wrong in a budding designer like us, doing this???

Well, 'A' when inverted looks a lot like 'V' too.

Why do you think it's a copy? Why can't it be a coincidence? With all the companies, and all their logos, there are definitely bound to be similarities or supposedly copied logos. And more important is, you can't ensure that the logo you are using is absolutely original all the time. It's also not necessary to do so, especially if the parties in question are not direct competitors. In this case, Axis bank is definitely not a competitor in any way to Verisign.

You can go through these..
When Logos look alike
Similar logos

So, from automobiles to sports wear to cold drinks to operating systems, there are many places where logos are very much similar to each other. And we can only say that they are coincidences, as no one deliberately designs their logos to resemble some other logo.

And finally,

We should not do something just because some big firm is doing it.. Plagiarism is bad, regardless of who does that. If as a budding designer you design a logo, and by chance it did resemble some other well known logo, that's ok. But just because some other big firm supposedly copied another logo, doesn't mean when you do it, it's ok.

If it's the coincidence we should forgive. But if the two look much like each other, more than 90%. Maybe is not just coincidence.

Some more Copy Cats...

@Praveen -How can you say that it's copy?

Okay, Same kind of question my friend asked me once And my reply to her is -

Now you can say that dresses don't have patent rights. I said this for an example of a human feeling. Hope this might be a reason with some of them, who knows? I can't see any thing wrong in doing so.

@Kiran - If you keep on browsing the web you can see plenty of things like what you've posted. You can't call them as copy cats.

Guys, check this out...

Enya - Lothlorien [Lord of the Rings Soundtrack]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL27CF9B510D69F630&v=iRcaeNF98sM&feature=player_detailpage#t=315s
Once More - Tamil Movie starring Vijay, Simran and Sivaji Ganesan. Check out at 5 mins 15 secs. What a public copy!!!

For a better version, check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hP5QatvZe3Q#t=345s
It was kind of a hit movie in Tamil Cinema... And the music is an untouched copy! What do you think of this?

I just want to pull your attention to heading of the thread. Check my signature. Did you visit my link?
There is one thing, that is ctrl+c & ctrl+v. Now what you say about it whether it is legal or not?

If they are two totally different companies selling totally different products/services then law would not see it as wrong. It would be wrong if similar logos would confuse customers or if it were an attempt to use an established company's trademark for the benefit of your own. If it is proven that no confusion will take place then no wrong is given.
In this case its two totally different companies. Its alos just one letter in the logo in question, it would be ridiculous to argue this in court.

This reminds me, I read about the movie Jodi Breakers starring Bipasha Basu directed by Ashwini Chaudry. It was alledged that the producer copied the French film Heartbreakers. The lawyers looked at the film and found no similarities.

@praveen

why should anyone bother if a logo has been copied ? in what way is the party, whose logo got copied, losing.

@ kiran singy

did mercedes benz really copy its logo from somebody else ?

Guys, be in real world!!
wht does ur eyes say?
Dont they look similar...... wht evr relevant or irrelevant product they are selling..
Dont speak up on that, any big advertising agnecy gets the contract to design that logo....& SO CALLED COINCIENDENCE HAPPENS...i must say what a coincidence.
May be tomorrow u clone urself and one starts walking upside down " one would say its just conincidence no surprise son!

Hey praveen thats true wht u meantioned man.

Yes! It might be a coincidence.
But sometimes it can also be a marketing gimmic! As we see in case of chinese phones! Their phone designs are so similar to other branded phones. Any way we know they are chinese phones. But people do buy a phone(chinese) which looks like some other branded phone say lumia 800. Here chinese phone designs are copied from other already popular phones to increase their sales.
But Pravin is talking about two big players of their respective field. Even verisign would be knowing that people would raise questions if they copy someone else's logo. Also verisign and axis bank, both belong to different fields!
So i dont think verisign tried to copy the logo. Instead its definitly a coincidence. Because verisign wont have any profit if they copy axis banks logo.
But who knows ,may be versign would have found axis's logo extremly cool!! So they made a similar logo

Similar! Lolz... If you rotate something vertical, you say that as similar?

Ya ya its almost an exact copy!! companies should do a proper research before finalizing a logo! If intention is of copying, nothing we can do about that!

And yeah, what will people think about Verisign after knowing that they have done this?

I dont see them using that logo anymore.