carterdea

tl;dr someone is claiming trademark infringement on a logo that they trademarked 4 years after we had had ours

This is my first post, I hope you guys can help. I am doing some marketing work for a small startup job board for medical device professionals (http://meddevicejobs.com). We had a logo and brand designed in 2004 by a design firm here in Phoenix, AZ.

Just recently, I noticed a different local design firm using a logo almost exactly like ours. This is the first I've heard of them, so I sent a sarcastic tweet from the company account, just "Cool logo." They tweeted back that it was cool and it's interesting that they've had it trademarked for "many years."

Next I get an email from them asking me to take our logo down because it infringes on their trademark. I looked up the trademark and they have the "M" thingy trademarked, but reversed. The trademark was for 2008. We had this logo in 2004. We didn't trademark it as we didn't think it was necessary and we put our money elsewhere.

What is the best thing to do?

Thanks