The Metropolitan Police have called in their lawyers after a company promoted a new office development in Kingston with a logo that looked rather similar to their own.

Kopshop, the Kingston Office Precinct, is a new development of eight offices on the site of the former police station in Old London Road, Kingston, which has been converted by developer Fulham Investment Ltd (FiL).

To advertise the official launch of the offices, nicknamed "the cells", FiL sent out flyers containing the Kopshop logo and a drawing of a policeman on the front. Kingston police were unaware of the similarities of the two logos until shown a copy of the flyer by the Surrey Comet.

A spokeswoman for Kingston police said: "We have now sent the flyer to our central branding and legal division."

It is the second time FiL has produced a logo that closely resembles someone else's. In February, the Surrey Comet reported on how similar the FiL company logo looked to that of Public Image Ltd, a band formed by ex-Sex Pistol John Lydon.

The latest Kopshop logo was designed by Mark Lawson, founder of FiL, who denied that it resembled that of the police. He said: "It does not say Metropolitan Police anywhere on the leaflet. I think it is clever and fun. In today's world, we take inspiration from everywhere. I do not think it is too close to the Metropolitan logo. Nobody has come knocking on the door thinking that it is a police station.

"We will deal with it if and when we get a phone call from the police, but I certainly won't be changing the name of the development without some very hard solicitor's letters."

Mr Lawson said his PiL homage got some celebrity comment. He said: "We actually sent a copy of the FiL logo to John Lydon's website. He laughed at it, saying the PiL logo had been often imitated, but never bettered."