PayPal Cries Foul, Accuses Paytm Of Stealing From Its Logo, Hilarity Ensues Online

All¡¯s not going well for Paytm, the unheralded ¡°messiah¡± of India¡¯s demonetization scourge, off late. The e-wallet and online payment app service has been facing technical issues and not working properly over the past couple of days, and while it has doused that fire, a new inferno has erupted.

PayPal -- one of the early pioneers of online payment systems, with a shrinking user base -- has accused Paytm of infringing on its logo. No kidding. The US-based PayPal filed a complaint in the Indian trademark office, claiming the Alibaba-backed Paytm¡¯s redesigned logo ¡°slavishly adopted the two-tone blue colour scheme¡± which is the trademark of the original PayPal logo.

The trademark infringement claim was filed on 18th November, on the final day of the four month window for any party to raise any objections -- Paytm had filed for its new logo trademark on July 18.

Is the Paytm logo ¡°deceptively and confusingly similar¡± to the PayPal logo? Is PayPal¡¯s argument moot and the US-based company trying to stir a controversy where none exists? We¡¯ll let you decide.

Meanwhile, here are some social media reactions

What took PayPal so long?

PayPal thinks Paytm copied its logo. What took it so long to spot that? Dispute pending with Indian Trademark office https://t.co/PPyHMSg4tN

¡ª pankaj mishra (@pankajontech) December 15, 2016

Some claim the Paytm logo does look deceptively similar to PayPal's

The PayTM logo does look deceptively similar! https://t.co/k15FDYVwB2 pic.twitter.com/JQ05QrHnYR

¡ª Rudrarka Basu (@RudrarkaBasu) December 16, 2016

PayPal is a big cry baby

Ah well¡­

New paytm logo in recent update is too bad. @Paytm

¡ª Harsh Dhiman (@Tweet2Hd) December 13, 2016