WARMINGTON: Mark Carney told 'cease' using trademarked logo, quickly creates new one

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Would-be prime minister Mark Carney’s special campaign logo to try to win the Liberal leadership was too good to be true.

Or, at least apparently, too good to be used by him legally.

So, he changed it.

He wasn’t even one minute into his quest to become Canada’s next prime minister and Carney already was embroiled in his first scandal. Not for copying a policy or overspending but for allegedly copying his new campaign logo that seemed to be so good – it already belonged to somebody else.

And he was asked to “cease” using it.

To their credit, Carney and his team quickly complied.

“That’s a beautiful logo Mark but we’re apolitical,” MetCredit President and CEO Brian Summerfelt posted to X.

With the M worked into with a red maple leaf, it is a nice logo – something Metropolitan Credit Adjusters Ltd. points out it has had trademarked since 2020 in Canada and 2023 in the United States.

But somehow the Carney campaign, which kicked off Thursday in Edmonton, missed that.

Following up on his X post, Summerfelt sent an email to Carney with the information that his campaign logo was almost exactly the one that Edmonton-based but national business debt collection firm MetCredit uses in its day-to-day communications.

“Mark, my logo is a registered trademark. The one created for your campaign is too close for comfort,” wrote Summerfelt. “Please cease using it. Thank you.”

Perhaps the only thing worse than government coming after you is a professional collection agency, as Carney found out.

The big question is how did this happen? The Carney camp has not commented.

“His creative team definitely took a short cut,” said Summerfelt, who on MetCredit’s website says “like many MetCredit’s senior management team, started out on the collection floor and has learned a thing or two in his two decades in the business.”

Oops. Wrong guy to tangle with. One thing Summerfelt understands is what belongs to him does not belong to someone else.

“Symbols should usually be researched first,” he told the Toronto Sun.

Whatever happened, Carney and his people didn’t waste any time fixing this.

“I just received a call from the campaign team,” said Summerfeld. “A sincere apology for the MetCredit logo use. They have made a change to the website already.”

And all of their social media accounts.

It was the right thing to do.

It’s never much fun when a top collection agency comes calling, so it was an uncomfortable day for Carney and team – especially since they have used this logo in their ads, on the podium he spoke from, and in television spots.

What they did with the change is instead of the M and the Canadian flag, they melded a red Canadian flag in with the Mark Carney name. It looks pretty good – especially since it had to be designed on the fly.

And, so far, it doesn’t appear to look like anybody’s property.

On the other one, MetCredit had a trademark agreement registered with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, which very clearly shows MetCredit’s approval and also says, “the applicant disclaims the right to the exclusive use of the eleven-point maple leaf apart from the trademark.”

Carney didn’t take any chances, didn’t make excuses or complain and simply did the right thing.

It was a positive ending to an up and down week for Carney who had a softer opening with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on Monday but found tougher ground on Canadian soil as he gets his quest going to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Just like voters don’t like to see their tax dollars stolen, it turns out companies are not big on having their logos allegedly hijacked either.

But Carney has been around and understood that and adjusted well.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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