New York-based Citigroup is asking a California marijuana dispensary to get rid of a logo that it asserts looks like the logo of its banking subsidiary Citibank.
This is not the first instance of cannabis-related trademark conflicts involving major brand names such as Hershey’s and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Besides having a similar sounding name, Citidank uses the same font that Citibank uses in its logo.
Citibank’s logo contains red, white and blue colors with a red arc above the “iti” in the bank’s name.
Citidank uses a green-and-white color scheme with a cannabis leaf above the “iti” in its name.
“Unless you are as high as a kite, you know that Citi isn’t affiliated with this business in any way and we have requested that they stop using Citi’s name and logo,” Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a Citibank spokeswoman, wrote in an email to Marijuana Business Daily.
Citidank, which opened last month, took out a full back-page ad in the Coachella Valley Weekly saying it would meet patients’ “danking needs,” according to the Post.