• My vet clinic I work at was contacted by Red Cross some years ago damanding that we change our logo becuase it had a red plus sign in it. It was the most ridiculous thing. How did they even find out about us? we are no big time clinic, only people in our city are going to know who we are. We had that logo for a long, long time. It was just bizarre.

    •  Irina   ( @irasponsible@beehaw.org ) 
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      811 months ago

      I don’t think Red Cross is going off trademark law; using the Red Cross for anything but the Red Cross (same for the Red Crescent and Red Crystal) is a violation of international law (i.e. the Geneva Convention)

      • You would think that, but no. It’s specifically the Red Cross organization. Which is an international organization.

        It can also be used by militaries and such for Geneva Convention complaint medical use, such as search and rescue operations or medical centers and such.

        That’s it. Those are the only legally allowed uses. And even Geneva Convention complaint medical use is often run by the international organization.

      • That’s what we had thought too. Also the fact that it was a really generic looking red plus sign. How can someone trademark a symbol used by everyone? I guess if it wasn’t red, it would have been fine. There was a lot of scoffing going on in clinic.