They're young, hip and ingenious, spreading their brain waves to other members of Richmond's creative class in a new incubator for innovative business ideas: the Creative Change Center, located in same building with marketing powerhouse Play at 18th and Cary streets.
But are they creative enough to steal their logo, C3, from a local Web designer?
Catherine Copeland Casati, another C3, is a little peeved. Casati, who runs a Web design firm out of her home, has used the C3 moniker for the last six years. Casati says her identity has been C3 ever since she can remember. She even signs her name C3. (Casati does design work for Style.)
She called the other C3 earlier this year and asked the executive director, Michele Stuchell, to consider changing the company's name. Casati says her clients are confused and keep asking what her new business is all about. She claims the confusion has hurt business.
"I am just heartbroken because C3 for me is not about business, it is a very personal symbol that is inherent to my identity," she says in an e-mail sent to clients June 21. "When a lot of people see C3, they think it's me."
But there's a problem. She didn't register the logo as a trademark. When she started the business, she didn't have the money to pursue registering the logo, Casati says, and figured there was little chance someone would duplicate it.
Stuchell says she wasn't aware of Casati's C3 when they launched the business in January. By the time she heard about the probelm a few months later, it was too late to turn back. So much time, money and effort had gone into marketing the new nonprofit.
Besides, Stuchell says there shouldn't be a conflict. Their businesses don't intersect. "We support people like Copeland, and we want to see them succeed and flourish," Stuchell says.
To Stuchell's knowledge, no one has called looking for Casati's business, or seeking Web design work. If they did, she'd refer them to Casati.
Casati, however, says the damage is already done.
"Honestly, it's just totally depressing to me," she says. "It's just sad. I'm the type of person they are supposed to be helping." — Scott Bass
