ADT sues Amazon’s Ring over ‘brazen’ copies of blue octagon sign

ADT Inc., the largest home-security company in the U.S., has filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon.com Inc.’s Ring service of copying its trademarked blue octagon symbol “to tout a reputation for trust to potential customers that it has not earned.”

ADT said it’s been using the blue octagon in lawn signs and window stickers for decades, and that they are displayed by some 6.5 million customers as a sort of “keep out” warning to burglars. The company wants a federal judge in Florida to order Ring to cease using what it says are look-alike signs, and pay unspecified cash compensation.

The lawsuit came after years of friction between ADT, which, according to its website, began with “a telegraph-based ‘call-box in 1874,” and Ring, which was founded in 2013.