: Would this be considered as plagiarism? I have recently had a logo designed for my company only to realise after rebranding my vehicle and website is shares certain similarities with another

@Carla748

The key question should be 'will the target audience be likely to confuse one company for the other as a function of the trade mark'. In this case the logo.

Not legal advice but as a long time entrepreneur (60+ years) I don't see that as a likely outcome.

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@Murray976

There is a difference between "plagiarism" and "copyright infringement". Plagiarism means pretending that you created something when you didn't. If your graphics designer claims he created your logo, and in reality he paid some art student to create it, that would be plagiarism. Which would be legally totally fine. (Or you claiming that you created the logo and not your graphics designer; your designer might be unhappy about it but none of RHS's business. )

What you would need to worry about is copyright infringement or trademark infringement. Trademark infringement would happen if people look at your vehicle for example and think "look, there's an RHS vehicle". With "Goodwin Garden Services" on your van that's unlikely.

The other is copyright infringement; if RHS claimed that your graphics designer copied their logo. The colors are similar but not the same, and using green colours for a gardening business seems natural. Your leaves are one shape, the RHS leaves are all different shapes and not the one of your logo. RHS has apples in their logo. The stem is very different, and yours uses the I of GoodwIn for the stem. The one similarity is the leaves being sparse on a white background. All in all I wouldn't worry too much.

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@Dunderdale640

Just to add, No it doesn't. Think of it this way You have some letters in your logo, doesn't mean you can file lawsuit against others too on a copyright charge.

If your tree looked the same, had the same apples on it as the horticultural one then someone might have a case. However I'm not sure how far "he copied my tree" would stand up in court

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@Gloria351

There is not nearly enough similarity between both logos. Also by definition you are not plagiarizing, since you are not trying to use someone else's work as if it yours. I don't think there is anything unlawful here.

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@Mendez620

There is no legal threshold that you can go over to be "safe" as the law is interpreted by the judge. In this case I do not see any problems. The greens are different the style is different and even the trees are different. Not to mention the services are different.

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@Shakeerah625

No, not at all.

It doesn't have nearly enough similarities to count as plagiarism. Yes, they both feature a tree. As do many, many logos. The style is different, the use of colors, the whole setup is different.

However, if the other company is widely known in your field and you are afraid your clients might confuse you with each other, you could consider changing. I personally doubt this will be the case though.

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