Trademark conflict in art: magazine HART objects to museum H’Art

About H’Art Museum, the new name of the Hermitage Amsterdam, the museum has ended up in a legal conflict with the Belgian art magazine HEART.

The Hermitage Museum announced at the end of June that it will be given a new name as of September 1, which no longer recalls the broken ties with Russia last year. But immediately when the Amsterdam art museum announced its new name and logo as H’Art Museum, it was striking that they closely resemble the logo of the Belgian monthly magazine.

According to the Dutch-language magazine, with a printed circulation of three thousand copies, the agreement leads to “confusion”, especially since both parties are active in the visual arts. “We found it very, very strange,” says director and editor-in-chief Kathleen Weyts of the magazine when asked. The magazine assumes that the museum has not done enough research into the trademark registration.

Until this Wednesday morning, the Hermitage Amsterdam and HEART several conversations to reach a solution. Weyts: “The most elegant solution is that the party that made a mistake, in this case the Hermitage, chooses a different name.” However, according to the Belgian magazine, those conversations yielded nothing. It then announced in a press release on Wednesday afternoon that it would “further explore legal options”. Museum Hermitage stated in a written response that it is open “to more and more extensive consultation”.

Treated with disdain

“We don’t feel seriously taken by the Hermitage, and treated with disdain,” says director Weyts. The Amsterdam museum wants both names to continue to exist side by side, it writes in its response: “In our opinion, there is room for both brands; two different names and different interpretation, where the differences are clearly recognizable to the public.”

The independent art magazine HEART registered at its creation in 2006 at the trademark office of the Benelux its name and logo, which at the time was written as HEART. The magazine has been using the name since 2019 HEART, in a font that closely resembles the logo that the Amsterdam museum wants to use. The Hermitage Amsterdam registered last May the name H’Art Museum.

On June 26, just hours after the museum announced its name change, registered the museum also has its logo. According to Weyts, this only happened after the magazine had pointed out the duplication to the museum. However, the museum did not tell her about that registration, she says. “We found out ourselves.” She calls it “very regrettable that there is not more collegiality from the Hermitage”.

Both parties write that they “look forward to a possible lawsuit with confidence”.