Google faces legal proceedings from ShortsTV over YouTube Shorts branding

Logos for Shorts TV and YouTube Shorts

Short film entertainment company ShortsTV has issued legal proceedings in the UK Intellectual Property Enterprise Court against YouTube owner Google for trademark infringement.

ShortsTV believes Google has infringed its copyright with its YouTube Shorts service, which it claims uses a logo that is “markedly similar” to the Shorts and ShortsTV brand logos.

Shorts International (SI), the ShortsTV holding company, owns prior-registered trademarks of ShortsTV and Shorts in the UK, the EU, India and the US.

According to SI, when it challenged the US giant on its use of the similar logo, Google responded by litigating to attack the validity of ShortsTV’s existing registered trademarks in multiple jurisdictions, forcing ShortsTV to actively defend its brand and trademarks that have existed in various forms since 2008.

Google launched YouTube Shorts in late 2020 as a rival to TikTok. Its shortform videos are being watched by more than 1.5 billion logged-in users every month globally, according to YouTube.

ShortsTV, meanwhile, claims to have the world’s largest catalogue of quality short film offerings, including award-winning live-action, animated and documentary shorts.

SI is headquartered in London and is represented in the US by Shorts Entertainment Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary located in LA. SI is majority owned by Shorts Entertainment Holdings and has AMC Networks as a significant minority shareholder.

Google has not yet responded to C21’s request for comment.

ShortsTV founder and CEO Carter Pilcher said: “This is really saddening. A massive company decides to adopt branding that we consider almost identical to our own, and which we have spent decades of concerted effort building into a recognised and respected name in our industry, and when challenged, they apply to cancel our trademarks around the world rather than seek an amicable resolution.

“That is unfortunately the position ShortsTV faces, and we have been left no choice but to pursue this litigation as a last resort. We hope the court will agree that Google has infringed our trademarks.”