Buzzfeed has issued a “cease and desist” letter to an AI news aggregator, claiming the start-up’s logo is an infringement of its copyright.
Trending Now, which aggregates the top B2B stories in sectors such as construction into AI-generated newsletters, received the legal letter days after Press Gazette reported on the fact it had passed one million subscriptions.
Buzzfeed also sent a similar letter to Press Gazette, saying our story was adding to Trending Now’s “infringement” because it featured two screenshots of the brand’s website in which the logo was visible.
Buzzfeed had requested that Press Gazette “immediately” and entirely remove its article about Trending Now. However the matter was resolved after we cropped out the logo from our screenshots of the Trending Now site.
Both Buzzfeed and Trending Now’s logos feature a circle inside which is a white arrow pointing up and to the right, with a kink in the middle.
Buzzfeed’s logo was first trademarked in the UK in 2014 and the company said it had been in use since at least August 2012.
Trending Now’s managing director Joe Newton told Press Gazette they had not been aware of the “very similar” logos until the letter arrived and are now “looking into this issue”.
He said: “Wow, we do have very similar logos. We see this as a good omen for Trending Now. As history shows, all the most successful companies in the world have at some point had a dispute over their logos, branding and ownership, and we are no exception.
“It also shows the power and importance of Press Gazette’s circulation and our one million subscriptions because until now neither party had any idea we were both using very similar logos.
“We fully understand the importance of logos and brand identity as a business. Trending Now makes sure that the logos of every single news source featured in our newsletters is clearly displayed, right next to each and every article, so that there’s no confusion with where the top trending news is coming from. We’re proud of championing the sources that we aggregate from.
“We’re looking into this issue and will be replying to them in due course.”
Trending Now launched in 2022 and now covers 27 industry sub-verticals under the main umbrellas of construction, design, business, healthcare, technology and transport. Each newsletter gives subscribers five trending stories about their industry of choice.
It has a staff of ten but no journalists or editors but Newton said many publishers “like it because we are effectively driving traffic to their site”.
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