Would A Moron In A Hurry Be Confused Between A Huge Luxury Retailer And A Small Roadside Cafe?
from the harrods-hollands dept
Jamie alerts us to the news that the giant luxury department store Harrods, in London, is threatening a small roadside cafe, called Hollands (accurately named after the cafe's owners) for having a logo that's too similar. The Daily Mail article above has a number of excellent photographic comparison shots, including a nice one showing the dumpy looking cafe juxtaposed with Harrod's famous, iconic, storefront. The logos themselves both use similar script fonts, but it seems unlikely that anyone would be confused, and the whole thing comes off as the department store bullying a little cafe.
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Hollands Cafe: Your Luxury Destination For Beauty, Fragrance, & Meatloaf
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Re: Hollands Cafe: Your Luxury Destination For Beauty, Fragrance, & Meatloaf
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Design Firm Or Hollands?
Who designed the logo, sign, menus, etc.? If it was a design firm, who offered this font as a sample? Did the Hollands' ask for 'something like Harrods' or just something nice?
Personally, when working on designs for small businesses, I usually find several appropriate samples and offer them to the client. If the Hollands' picked this font from a sample, that lends more credibility to their story.
Regardless of whether or not the Hollands' were purposely trying to imitate Harrods, I still stand behind my previous comment. Even if they're right, they still look like assholes.
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Re: Design Firm Or Hollands?
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Re: Re: Design Firm Or Hollands?
I doubt that small restaurant owners would have paid to have a font created. It's more likely that they were shown several samples and went, 'Hey, honey, that looks like my signature! Let's choose that one.'. And now they are truthfully stating that they chose their logo because it resembled her signature. :)
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Re: Design Firm Or Hollands?
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Re: Re: Design Firm Or Hollands?
I doubt that small restaurant owners would have paid to have a font created. It's more likely that they were shown several samples and went, 'Hey, honey, that looks like my signature! Let's choose that one.'. And now they are truthfully stating that they chose their logo because it resembled her signature. :)
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Re: Re: Re: Design Firm Or Hollands?
If this is indeed a case of copyright infringement, as Harrod's lawyers seem to feel, then the case should be tossed immediately, as the sign says "Hollands" not "Harrod's", the two are obviously not the same.
If Harrod's lawyers are idiots, and they actually mean "Trademark infringement", then the case should still be tossed immediately, as the two logos aren't sufficiently similar to imply any sort of connection. Holland's logo is on an acute slant, Harrod's isn't. Holland House Drink Mixes might have a better case against Hollands than Harrod's does.
This is simply a case of a big, greedy company trying to bully a little one.
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The font creaters will make a killing.
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What's copyrighted? The font?
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Survey Says
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And anyone who misses on all you describe and still makes it inside and can't tell the difference between a cafe and department store, well frankly they deserve to be called a moron.
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Re: Survey Says
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No confusion here
From the linked article:
"Harrods corporate affairs manager Hannah Hodges said: 'Examination of the Hollands Cafe Lounge sign will reveal the script is extremely similar to our copyrighted Harrods logo and could, therefore, wrongly suggest some association between our organisations."
This sounds like Harrods is trying to claim copyright on a font. Not a name but a font.
This is bull. Harrods should have just left this alone
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re: survey says
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By the way, welcome to TechDirt, Nick. If you want to reply to a specific comment, you will see a link labeled 'reply to this comment' under each one. That will save you from having to type out re: (topic name) yourself.
Take it easy. :)
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Of course, you CAN pay a type designer to create one for you, but I guess it is cheaper to pay an attorney to bully a cafe owner than to pay for original graphic design.....in Bizzaro World!
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It doesn't confuse me at all
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Re: It doesn't confuse me at all
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Which are you asking?
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Re: Which are you asking?
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yes folks the burger king thoery again
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Any one who thinks Harrods is in essex are truely morons.
the name is differant i have yet to meet someone who complained that they wanted to go to Holland and got taken to harrods or vice versa.
harrods should be told to stick it where the sun dont shine as to copyright er can you claim copyright over someones family name dont think so.
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We have:
- very misaligned copyright laws (skewed in the direction of the big media corporations rather than the artists and the public), the world over, that harm rather than stimulate creativity. (and according to a debat recently held in NL on copyright and legal/illegal downloading, our government can't even change those laws without raising a lot of heckles with other countries, as these laws are deeply embedded in lots of treaties and with ACTA coming, it is only going to get worse)
- patent laws that harm rather than promote innovation.
- companies that think they are entitled to a lot more than they should.
- Justice skewed in the direction towards the rich. (The team with the most expensive lawyers almost always win)
Stop this world! I want off.
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"Mr Holland said the logo, written in a slanting yellow script, was based on the way his wife signs her name."
Assuming this is true, is there anyone aware of a particular font of the type used by Harrod's? I ask this only because of the striking similarities between the the two marks.
This said, I believe Ms. Welch offered the best solution in her initial post. Why waste money when almost certainly an easy business solution can be readily crafted?
BTW, I have never been to Harrold's, but I am sure their Christian Dior Pancake Platter and Chanel No. 5 tea are delicious.
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copyright on a typeface?
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Look at the Pictures ...
Common letters between the fonts:
'H': In Harrods 'H' the cross line has a downward curve to it while Hollands 'H' is a straight line that is slanted upwards to the right. the cross line has a lighter weight in Harrods, and the location of the cross line appears to be different.
'd': The base of the stem where it connects to the loop has a rounded appearance in Harrods, and a pointy appearance in Hollands. The hollow in the loop is much narrower in Hollands.
'o': Very similar, however the small loop at the top of the 'o' has a subtle, but different shape to it
'a': This letter looks the same to me
's': Very Very similar, but on close inspection you'll see that the middle section of the letter has a lighter weight in Harrods
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A more relevant question is would a lawyer be confused?
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Re:
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Obvious confusion (not)
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Similar and popular
I mean that's not a problem.
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