There are many reasons to rebrand a company. Sometimes a rebrand is undertaken because the company has added – either through a merger or outright acquisition – additional products or services that aren’t reflected in the old brand. Other times, a company may go through a rebrand because the old brand needs to be refreshed to appeal to either a broader or younger (sometimes both) audience.
Whatever the reason for the rebrand, it needs to be done with care. New names or logos may infringe on another company’s intellectual property, and it could become a matter for the courts to decide.
Take the case of Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. In the past few years, Facebook acquired other social media platforms – most notably Instagram and What’s App – to add to its portfolio and felt that the name Facebook no longer reflected all that Facebook had become. Two years ago, the name was changed to Meta Platforms, or Meta for short, and a new logo was created that looks like a drooping infinity sign is also designed in such a way to look similar to a letter “m” for Meta.
In addition to some general criticism at the time about the choice of Facebook’s new name, there were also several smaller companies that had already trademarked the name “Meta.” The newly named Meta has thrown a ton of money at this trademark battle and will continue to do so, but it may turn out that the new logo will create the most problems for it.
In mid-December, a company known as MetaX, LLC, which is known for creating virtual and augmented reality “experiences” and had previously filed a lawsuit to prevent Meta from selling their own virtual reality products, filed a trademark opposition against Meta, claiming that Meta’s new logo is too similar to their own, and thus infringes on MetaX’s own trademark. While disputes like this are often settled before reaching a courtroom, some experts believe that this logo fight may prove even more expensive of a legal battle for Meta than the previous lawsuits. The final outcome remains to be seen, but it provides a great cautionary tale for any company seeking to rebrand itself.