Anime Boston Parent Suing Fantastic Gatherings Inc.

Tempers are on the rise in the Anime Community today when Fantastic Gatherings Inc. announced they were being sued by Anime Boston's Parent company The New England Anime Society (NEAS) for their "Boston Anime Festival" logo.

Logos and Confusion

While the logo does not say "Anime Boston" I can see why the NEAS decided to go through with a law suit. The color scheme alone is enough to make Fantastic Gathering's event seem as though its an event supported by Anime Boston when its not in the slightest. Anime Boston has been using the Navy and bright orange with traces of yellow to represent their convention for 16 years, A-Chan and B-Kun wear these colors, this event could easily be mistaken for something that they organized. Anime Boston has in-fact sponsored events in the past or even gone out to promote at smaller events. For example Anime Boston's Registration team attended N.E.C.C. Events' Ice Skating extravaganza last year. Anime Boston also was a partner for the popular Japan Festival that takes place on the commons before the Annual Cosplay Picnic.

Anime Boston released a statement regarding the law suit yesterday afternoon saying "NEAS is always enthusiastic about other organizations that support and promote the celebration of Japanese pop-culture. Convention organizers are part of a tight-knit group and when one does well we all benefit. We hope that Fantastic Gatherings and IMAGE have a very successful event, but we think they should do so using their own trademark and not one that is confusingly similar to our mark and brand." I can't say I disagree as the logo is very reminiscent of Anime Boston's Scheme and feel especially when looking back on the year Kaiju vs. Mecha themed year the convention had.

This law suit also did not come without warning to Fantastic Gatherings either. They were previously asked two times according to Anime Boston's Statement to change the Name/Logo on their site only to be refused and met with belligerency it seems had they complied it would not have been an issue. Anime Boston went on to say "All we have asked is for Fantastic Gatherings and IMAGE to change their event's name to something not so similar to our own mark. After denying our request twice, they have left us with no choice but to go to court to defend our mark and brand." If you wish to read the full statement Click Here.

Unprofessional

Shortly following Anime Boston's announcement Fantastic Gatherings inc. posted this. While I am all for letting the people know whats going on this was far from professional. Calling the NEAS names? Making it seem like they are trying to shut your event down when they simply asked that you change the name of your event as the logo and name is very close to their brand and extremely reminiscent of it? Its not the first time this company has tried to make them selves seem big and bad let alone trying to make them selves look like the victim here. There is a certain level of maturity I expect from someone in charge of an event, this is certainly not it.

Remarks

It only gets worse. Now reading this particular comment hurt my head, why would you put so many periods in whats supposed to be a professional update? More importantly sharing details like this outside of the court room while the suit is still proceeding can only get you if further legal trouble if any of this is brought up later in the court room as this continues on. Clearly making rather rude and unprofessional remarks like "guaranteed not boring and Free Parking" or "we were only asked to no longer "tag" animeboston in any posts on facebook ... anyone else supposedly is allowed to tag them according to facebook terms of service" is outrageous. If you, as an event runner, cannot be professional about a court room proceeding why should anyone take you, or the entirety of Fantastic Gatherings Inc., seriously? People looking in on the situation have been commenting on this of course one Person saying "As an attendee of both, I understand their intention is to supposedly distinguish their name from yours, even if they have sinister motives.... idk, prob not tho... maybe?but risking court against a big guy, all that cash, and possibly risking this very family oriented convention that I enjoy many times a year with my boy, why not just change it to 'South Coast Anime Fest' or something... its got a better fit anyways." .

As it stands the reasoning behind this lawsuit is to clearly separate the Anime Boston name owned by The New England Anime Society from the events that Fantastic Gatherings Inc. has been putting out almost non stop. Within each year Fantastic Gatherings has been adding new events and spreading out which is not a bad thing but from the looks of it they are spreading them selves a little too thin too quickly and making brash decisions with little care for whose toes they might be stepping on.