NORTHAMPTON — The city’s marijuana dispensary, New England Treatment Access, has settled a lawsuit brought by a lumber company that alleged NETA had ripped off its logo.
In April, Boise Cascade Co., an Idaho-based company with a distribution center in Westfield, sued NETA in U.S. District Court in Boston. The company claimed it had been using its “Tree-in-a-Circle” trademarks since 1964 and that NETA’s logo was “confusingly similar” to Boise Cascade’s logo.
In a court filing on Sept. 6, both companies’ lawyers agreed to the dismissal of the case with prejudice and without costs.
Details about the settlement are not included in public court filings. However, NETA’s logo on its website has now changed from green to blue, and the tree logos on the website no longer feature a circle — details first reported by The Republican. The logos displayed on NETA’s Northampton dispensary remain the same.
Boise Cascade’s lawsuit claimed that NETA’s logo was “often presented in a nearly-identical green” as its own logo. In addition to its allegations of trademark infringement, Boise Cascade listed other complaints in its lawsuit, including injury to business reputation and unfair trade practices.
Peter Brown, a spokesman for NETA, did not respond to questions about the details of the settlement. In a statement, he said simply, “The matter has been resolved amicably.”