The new Citroën logo is not as fresh and fruity as we thought and may go back to the beet bridge after three months.
At the end of September we reported that Citroën has a fresh and fruity new logo. Parent group Stellantis currently has a huge mountain of brands under its umbrella and you have to do something to stay relevant. Especially now that some models that used to be Citroëns, are now suddenly going through life under the name of yet another brand, namely ‘DS’.
It was not a new experience for Citroën to change the logo. This is the tenth logo in the brand’s more than 100 years of existence. Autoblog existed for five years when the previous one was presented. In terms of design, the new emblem is very similar to the original from 1919. It appeared for the first time on the 19-19, a concept from 2019.
There is a small problem, however, in the form of large buses. The Chinese Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus uses a logo that is very similar to the ‘new’ Citroën logo. Below you can see an image of the Golden Dragon logo:
Of course you can say that the Chinese have copied something again. But the Chinese believe that the opposite is the case. And the problem for Citroën is that Golden Dragon also has a European trademark registration for its logo since 2010. From a legal point of view, it therefore has ‘the oldest rights’, as Citroën apparently no longer has any rights to the logos of 1919, 1922 and 1936, which are very similar to the new emblem.
Citroën thus invokes the ‘fact’ that Golden Dragon has not used the logo in Europe for the past five years. Copyright law works through a species use it or lose it-principle. This works both ways: if you don’t use a logo for a certain period of time, you lose rights to it. If you allow another party to use something similar to your logo and do not object, you may also lose the rights. However, the Chinese contradict Citroën’s reading and say that they have indeed used the brand. They have also allegedly provided the necessary evidence for this.
It’s not that Citroën didn’t see all this coming. The legal wrangling has been going on since 2021. However, Citroën has been using the new logo for three months now. If the European trademark office now proves the French wrong, cars with the logo may become unique collector’s items. In the worst case, Citroën will have to adjust the logo anyway. Maybe transferring a bucket of money will also help…
Thanks Koos for the tip!
This article New Citroën logo possible after 3 months on the beet bridge appeared first on Autoblog.nl.
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