For more than a decade I’ve known Jeff Fisher of LogoMotives, ever since we both spent the better part of the early 00s helping newer designers learn the ropes via the Graphic Designers’ Resource Group Yahoo Group. Jeff is one of the most talented logo designers I’ve ever seen.
For nearly as long as I’ve known Jeff I’ve watched his now world-famous “C.A.T.” logo (partially shown above) being stolen. As Jeff himself notes in a recent LinkedIn article he wrote, the logo, which has been legitimately featured in more than a dozen books on logo design and branding, has been “appropriated without authorization by hundreds of ‘designers,’ companies, organizations and individuals. The list is so long that cannot be included on this site. Copyright infringements have been found in Canada, China, Ecuador, England, Italy, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay, Vietnam and elsewhere.” And not all of them were on Fiverr.com, surprisingly.
Now, for the first time since Jeff created the “C.A.T.” logo in 2007, it has finally been properly licensed for legal use by a client. That client did everything right and is now the proud licensee of one of the world’s most ripped-off logos.