Legal row over government's flag logo
- Published
Mr Vince said people may "confuse" his company's logo with that used by the government
The founder of a renewable energy company has started legal action against the government over the use of a green union flag logo.
Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, said his logo is similar to one used being used in branding for the government's Green GB Week.
Mr Vince said people may "confuse" the two.
The government said it was "proud" to use the flag and has offered to meet the company.
The government said the branding had been used for over a year
Mr Vince tweeted that he had begun legal action against the government "for using our green union jack flag trademark to promote their green-washing attempts at Green GB Week".
"We don't want the public confusing their version of a green Britain with ours," he said.
"It is trademarked. We've been using it for 10 years. It absolutely is our intellectual property."
He added that Ecotricity had "defended it successfully a few years ago, when EDF tried to use it to promote themselves as a green British company".
He said his solicitors had written to the government to ask it to stop using the green flag.
Officials wrote back saying they needed a month to respond, then later claimed there was no intellectual property clash as the government was not selling a product.
Mr Vince added that he would drop the legal proceedings if the government agreed to stop using the logo.
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A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's (BEIS) said it was "rightly proud to use our national flag to showcase our world leading role in tackling climate change".
They added that the branding had been "in the public domain" for over a year, and had been used in the Clean Growth Strategy published in October 2017.