The proposed inequality $\|\log(RS)\|\le\|\log(R)+\log)S)\|$ does *not* hold for all $R,S\in\mathrm{SO}(3)$ for which $\log(RS)$, $\log(R)$, and $\log(S)$ are defined. (In what follows, I'm taking the Frobenius norm to be $\|B\|^2 = \tfrac12\,\mathrm{tr}(B^TB)$, but this normalization clearly does not affect the argument.) First, of all, notice that the function $B\mapsto \|\log(B)\|$ is actually a continuous function on $\mathrm{SO}(3)$, because of the easily checked identity $$ \cos\bigl(\|\log(B)\|\bigr) = \tfrac12\bigl(\mathrm{tr}(B)-1\bigr) $$ and the fact that $\cos^{-1}:[-1,1]\to[0,\pi]$ is a continuous, strictly decreasing function on $[-1,1]$. If the desired inequality actually held, then we would have $$ \mathrm{tr}(RS) \ge 1+ 2\,\cos\bigl(\|\log(R)+\log(S)\|\bigr). $$ Now consider the two matrices $$ R = \exp\begin{pmatrix}0&-x&0\\x&0&0\\0&0&0\end{pmatrix} \quad\text{and}\quad S = \exp\begin{pmatrix}0&0&-y\\0&0&0\\y&0&0\end{pmatrix}, $$ where $0\le x,y < \pi$ (so that $R$, $S$, and $RS$ remain in the domain of the $\log$ function). The above inequality would imply $$ \cos x\cos y+\cos x + \cos y \ge 1 + 2\,\cos\left(\sqrt{x^2+y^2}\right). $$ However, this inequality does not hold: Take $x=y$ in the above expressions. Then, indeed, the inequality holds for small $x\ge0$, but there is a value $x=y\approx 2.405181<\pi$ where both sides of this last inequality become equal and then the inequality reverses in the range $2.405182\le x=y <\pi$. Thus, the original proposed inequality does not hold on $\mathrm{SO}(3)$. **Remark:** The situation is different for the unit quaternions (which can also be thought of as $\mathrm{SU}(2)$, but I won't.) There, we do indeed have $|\log(pq)|\le |\log(p) + \log(q)|$ for unit quaternions $p$ and $q$ different from $-1$, as long as we make the convention that $|\log(-1)| = \pi$, even though $\log(-1)$ cannot be defined continuously. Consider the quaternions, i.e., expressions of the form $q = x_0 + x_1\,i + x_2\,j + x_3\,k$, where the $x_i$ are real numbers and $i$, $j$, and $k$ satisfy the usual relations $i^2=j^2=k^2=-1$ and $ij-k=jk-i=ki-j=ji+k=kj+i=ji+k=0$. The *real part* of $q$ is $x_0$ and the *imaginary part* of $q$ is $x_1\,i + x_2\,j + x_3\,k$. As usual, set $|q| = (x_0^2+x_1^2+x_2^2+x_3^2)^{1/2}$. If $u$ is a unit imaginary quaternion then $u^2=-1$, so that, when $a$ is real, we have $\exp(a\,u) = \cos a + \sin a \,u$. Every unit quaternion $q$ other than $-1$ is of the form $\exp(x)$ for some *unique* purely imaginary quaterion $x$ with $|x|<\pi$. Then setting $x := \log q $ defines $\log$ as a smooth function on the unit quaternions minus the single element $-1$. Note that $|\log q|) = |x| = |a|$, so $\cos\bigl(|\log q|\bigr) = \cos a $, which is the real part of $q$. Suppose that $q = \cos a + \sin a \,u$ while $p=\cos b + \sin b \,v$ where $0\le a,b<\pi$ and $u$ and $v$ are unit quaternions, with $u\cdot v = \cos c$ for some $c$. Note that the real part of $uv$ is $-\cos c$. Thus, we have the product expansion $$ qp = (\cos a + \sin a \,u)(\cos b + \sin b \,v) = (\cos a\cos b-\sin a\sin b\cos c) + X $$ where $X$ is imaginary. Thus $$ \cos\bigl(|\log(qp)|\bigr) = (\cos a\cos b-\sin a\sin b\cos c). $$ Meanwhile $$ |\log q + \log p| = |au+bv| = \sqrt{a^2+2ab\cos c+b^2}. $$ Thus, the inequality $|\log(qp)|\le |\log q + \log p|$ is equivalent to $$ (\cos a\cos b-\sin a\sin b\cos c) \ge \cos\bigl(\sqrt{a^2+2ab\cos c+b^2}\bigr), $$ and this inequality does indeed hold for all $a$ and $b$ with $|a|,|b|<\pi$ and all $c$. (In fact, by continuity, it holds for $|a|,|b|\le \pi$ and all $c$. Note that equality holds in this range of the variables only when $a=0$, $b=0$ or $\cos c = \pm 1$.) (Note that $qp=-1$ would imply that $p=-\bar q$, so $\cos(a)+\cos(b)=0$ and $\sin a\,u=\sin b\,v$. But then $|\sin a|=|\sin b|$. This forces $a+b = \pi$ (since we can assume that $0\le a,b <\pi$) and $u=v$, i.e., $p=q$ is an imaginary unit quaternion, and $c=0$. Thus, the inequality holds even when $\log (qp)$ does not exist.)