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Comment by jwilk | Hacker News Reader

AT&T logo was mentioned elsewhere in comments. Any other examples?

Off the top of my head:

  - mr jumbo: php  
  - foxy: gitlab  
  - moby: docker  
  - steps: maybe webpack?  
  - the fall: endomondo  
  - apple: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Aug%2BBkatL._SY450_.jpg  
  - cosmos: CircleCI  
  - watchbob: Datadog?

Quite a lot of the others remind me intensely of service logos I've seen once but never used, especially birdangle and neo.

In fairness, some of those are quite a stretch. Sure, there are vague similarities (colours, approximate shapes) which might have given you a sense of familiarity but I wouldn't say - for example - that moby and docker were that similar despite the familiar artistic styles. For starters, they're not even the same animal.

They're both whales, no? Moby Dick etc.

My point is that if you started a containerization startup called Moby using that logo, people would be upset.

Docker doesn't own whales in the same way Apple doesn't own the concept of apples (as much as they'd like to), but using "inspired by" logos in the same context as the logo you were inspired by can cause problems.

Not sure if you're aware, but parts of what was Docker were actually rolled into another project called Moby about a year ago: https://www.infoworld.com/article/3193904/containers/what-is...

I thought that was a bird carrying something. But thinking about it now a whale makes much more sense!!

Apologies for disagreeing with you earlier. :)

I would disagree that the examples you provide are similar. Perhaps similar in the sense that they use the same animal. Take Mr Jumbo and PHP, style is completely different, colour is similar, but then again it's the colour of an elephant. One is wearing a top hat, the other isn't.

cosmos and CircleCI, do you actually think they are similar? watchbob and datadog? Come on.

The GitLab logo is, at least in the SVG file of the logo[0] and the UX guide[1], referred to as a tanuki.

[0] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/master/a...

[1] https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/master/doc/develop...

Mr Jumbo/PHP doesn't use an elephant logo. Is it the color you're concerned with? Mr Jumbo reminds me more of Bing Bong from Inside Out.

Foxy/Gitlab logo is _very_ close.

Moby/Docker is a stretch but I can see it a bit.

Steps/Webpack isn't that close. It looks closer to the old Windows Registry icon to me.

Fall/Endomondo seems like an obvious ripoff.

Apple I see no problem with (conceptually, at least. I wouldn't personally use something with an apple in the name/logo for obvious reasons.

Cosmos/CircleCI ehhhh, it reminds me more of the Colorado stickers I see all over, even using similar colors.

Watchbob/Datadog in no way are close aside from having dogs. Datadog has a very distinct, happy puppy look to it. It looks more like some sort of Jenkins clone in dog form to me, but it's distinct enough.

Most of these are more of a stretch to me than anything, although two of them do seem to be almost clones.

PHP has definitely used an elephant logo.

https://seeklogo.com/images/P/php-logo-ADE513E748-seeklogo.c...

The official PHP logo has no elephant:

https://secure.php.net/download-logos.php

The only ones that really could run afoul of anything are foxy, moby, and charlie. The rest seem pretty unique. Anything is going to start getting congested when you have hundreds and hundreds or startups looking for unique identifiable items.

- foxy: reminded me more of the older 538 logo.

- the fall: reminded me of the old packard bell logo

- steps: similar to some of the aws icons

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