It is a little but more interesting though when you dig around the history of the two companies.
Newport was introduced in 1957, a brand of menthol cigarettes produced by Lorillard Tobacco Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, United States.
Nike was actually formed on January 25, 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. in 1978. The Nike swoosh is a logo design created in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, over a decade after Newport Cigarettes came into being. So in fact Nike is very late in using the Newport Swoosh as its own brand mark. Interesting that they are in effect total opposites in terms of business focus, both health related, with very different agenda’s.
With regards to trademark I guess both companies working in very different areas helps. Although I do think attitudes were very different then. The paranoia now of having competitors remotely operating in or close to a similar field is crazy but not unfounded. Also given the amount of money spent of legal issues it would be a little harder now with the bigger game players. I guess the winners are always the legal team who probably have a version of the swoosh on their T-shirts with the words “Just done it”
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