Ring's design team looking at overtime as octagonal design is no more
Back in April, security specialist ADT launched legal action against Amazon-owned Ring, over the use of a blue octagon design that the Amazon-owned company has used with its new Outdoor Siren.
A couple of months on and we’ve been told by an ADT representative that the two companies have settled the trademark dispute and, as a result, Ring will yank the current Outdoor Siren, and launch an updated version of the smart alarm.
“ADT and Ring are pleased to have reached a mutually agreeable resolution,” said David Smail, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at ADT. “Ring will release a new version of the Outdoor Siren product and will discontinue the marketing and sale of the current design.
“As we continue to innovate in the smart home technology space through new products and partnerships, including partnerships with Google and other peers in the marketplace, it’s important that we protect our customers, our IP, and our reputation,” Smail added.
The Ring Outdoor Siren was unveiled back in March, alongside the new Ring Smart Plug and Ring Wall Light Solar.
It’s a siren that worked alongside Ring’s smart security system; but it was the blue hexagonal design that had ADT all worked up.
That was hardly surprising. It’s the main image above, ADT’s security mark is the image beloew.
“The complaint asserts Ring adopted a blue octagon mark that is virtually indistinguishable from ADT’s iconic blue octagon mark, which is protected under numerous federal trademark registrations,” read a statement from ADT at the time of the suit filing.
“ADT’s blue octagon is iconic in the security market, proudly displayed on lawn signs and stickers at the homes and businesses of ADT’s more than 6.5 million customers across the United States. Following an attempt to imitate ADT’s lawn signs, Ring went further and blatantly assimilated ADT’s logo into its Ring Alarm Outdoor Siren.”
The original complaint alleged that Ring is attempting “to reap the benefit of the goodwill associated with ADT’s brand and reputation,” and added that “this type of confusion seriously undermines the goodwill that ADT has cultivated in its Famous Blue Octagon and irreparably harms ADT.”
Although now resolved, this wasn’t the first legal wrangle between the rival home security system brands.
Back in 2017, ADT complained that Ring had obtained “an unauthorized copy of a software platform, related trade secrets, and other assets that ADT had spent two years and millions of dollars developing,”
ADT succeeded in prohibiting Ring from using the “stolen platform” before Ring eventually settled with ADT.
