Don’t Cross The ‘P’ Streams
Digital-payment company PayPal has filed a lawsuit against digital music service Pandora, claiming trademark infringement and trademark dilution. The New York Post reports the suit, which was filed last Friday in Manhattan federal court, claims that the confusion over the two logos — both of which are blue and white and simply use a capital “P” — “has interfered dramatically with PayPal users’ experience.” PayPal claims that Pandora’s big blue “P,” which was unveiled last October, damages its business because customers are mistakenly opening the wrong app on their phones. “I was a little confused when I opened PayPal and Barenaked Ladies started playing,” one distraught PayPal customer tweeted.
“One critically important function of the PayPal Logo is to stand out on the crowded screens of customers’ smartphones and tablets,” the suit states. The suit also states that Pandora’s new logo “not only resembles, but openly mimics the PayPal logo,” arguing that Pandora was aware of the similarities since “the PayPal Logo is on the checkout page of Pandora.com.” Some confused PayPal users wondered online whether PayPal bought Pandora, which is reportedly exploring a sale and took a $150 million infusion earlier this month.
PayPal claims the logo confusion could cause it to lose customers. “Even the slightest delay in locating and using PayPal’s payments platform causes customers inconvenience, and degrades PayPal’s standing with customers and merchants,” the suit says. PayPal claims it tried to work the problem out with Pandora, but says its letters were ignored, so it is asking the court to force Pandora to stop using the logo and pay unspecified damages.
