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Letters to Lucent Technologies

I am writing to you today in regards to your company logo, which you are aware is a religious symbol of Buddhism, recognized by millions of people throughout the world.  When this came to my attention, I investigated further and found that your company's official position was that they had developed the symbol independantly and without knowledge of it's prior use.  There does seem to be some evidence that the advertising firm you employed was aware of it's connotations, however. 

Regardless of this prior knowledge, it is apparent your company is now aware of the use of the sumi circle in Eastern religion.  It's continued use as your corporate logo is reprehensible.  I strongly urge you to find another logo; one that does not belittle the beliefs and faith of millions of people. 

I will be checking my stock portfolio shortly to find if any of the mutual funds to which I contribute invest in your company.  If so, I plan to move my investment into another mutual fund. As you can probably tell, I am quite upset about this, and will disseminate this to everyone I believe it affects.  I am only one person, but I am sure others feel this way, too.  Given that, is it truly worth your company's reputation and good-will amongst it's customers and investors to continue using the sumi, rather than simply find another logo?  Nike made a similar faus pax recently, but concluded the prudent thing to do was simply drop the ad campaign and apologize to the offended group.  That is my suggestion to your company. 

Please excuse me if this has reached the wrong party within your firm.  I would ask you to please forward it to the appropriate person,so that they made be aware of the effects this decision is having to your company. 

Sincerely, 

Joseph [surname withheld] 

Hi. I saw the discussion of your logo on http://www.spindrift.org/sumi_links.htm.

I am the biographor of Shunryu Suzuki who made the sumi circle that the San Francisco Zen Center uses and am also an ordained disciple of Suzuki. I'm not speaking for the Zen Center but I imagine that no one there much cares about your logo. I think it's fine and silly of anyone to protest. Nobody owns the form of the sumi circle and nobody can say in finality what it signifies. It certainly can't be legally claimed by anyone. I remember Suzuki making the one that the SFZC uses and which I used in the bio on him. It was done for a fundraising brochure or at least he did a bunch and this one was subsequently used for one. There are zillions of them in Asia and the rest of the world. I can't speak for Suzuki either but I bet he'd just laugh at anyone trying to make anything of this. Do as you please. I think you've got a cool logo. Don't worry. If anyone gives you any trouble feel free to quote me, though there is not anyone who can claim any authority on this matter really - as far as I'm concerned.

Not saying that I approve of your business practices.

David Chadwick (cuke.com)