Carvanaonline car dealer and operator of “a higher state of car buying” — sports a halo in its non-verbal logo shown above, but is it an angel when using the Google name and logo in t.v. ads?

In other words, is the use licensed by Google or could it be defended successfully without permission as trademark nominative fair use? Dear readers, what do you think?

In the meantime, a good friend Steve Feingold (who wears a halo well), will be delivering a Strafford webinar next month on Co-branding — maybe we can ask him to weigh in on this topic?