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The 4 Horsemen of the Brandpocalypse

It was late on Halloween evening
And the office had quietened down.
A lone trademark attorney
Sat at his desk and frowned.

"Although the trademark is an essential element in the system of undistorted competition its purpose is not, however, to protect its proprietor against practices inherent in competition" (1).  

For the marketing team charged with the creation of new brand names, finding a name that conjures up the right image, resonates with potential customers and conveys not just the core functionality of the product but also the benefits, is absolutely critical. Legal safety then adds a new dimension of complexity to an already complicated and challenging process. Finding or creating the perfect name and then having it rejected is heartbreaking.

Around the world, each country has developed differently. Even between countries that share common ancestors and language, the differences can be astounding. The business globe is split into ‘key regions’ where closer countries are grouped together - such as North America, EMEA, Europe and Asia. As you move from looking at countries to continents, the gap in natural cultural understanding of those markets tends to grow wider.

As every student of law quickly learns, there is a vast gulf of difference between the theory of law and its application in practice. The Madrid System of filing for international trademark registrations is a prime example. In theory, the Madrid System administered by the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) in Geneva offers a simplified and lower cost solution to managing international trademark registrations. There can be little doubt that compared to the previous system which often involved hiring local counsel in every country, many improvements have been achieved with undoubtedly, more to come. However, ‘simplified’ remains a relative term and complications still abound for the unwary!

Time-consuming.

If we had to describe the trademark search and registration process in one word, that would be it.

Like other bureaucratic processes, trademarking involves many hairsplitting steps to approval: Filling out paperwork, waiting on rounds of evaluations, and potentially dealing with cumbersome oppositions. It's enough to make any applicant's head spin.

There was an excellent profile of TrademarkNow and the work we do on the FastCoLabs section of the Fast Company magazine web site, titled How Do I (Really) Know If My Startup Is Infringing On Trademarks? 

Nothing evokes fierce national pride or passionate support quite like sports. While there is little in the way of study of the evolution of sports as it relates to our evolutionary biology, it has been suggested that sports evolved as a ‘replacement’ for the hunting and survival skills and activities necessary for early human existence.

Amid all of the complexities of the intellectual property world, it can often be the simplest, smallest detail that causes unexpected issues often years after the fact. Never is this more pertinent than in the ownership of trademarks (or any intellectual property). Above all else, trademarks are a commercial asset mostly granted on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis. The caveat to that being that they must be ‘used’ by the person or entity whose name is on the registration and that person or entity must have the legal capacity to own a commercial asset. In the birth and evolution of a business, challenges with those two elements arise surprisingly often….and all round the world!

One of the surprises in the analysis of the trademark applications of the “Top 200 Law Firms in Europe” is the spectacular growth of applications from China since 2010. There seems to have been a shift in the tide in the Chinese perspective and many new developments that are transforming both the attitude to IP protection within China and accessibility of information to those from outside the region. Perhaps this remodelling of the system has inspired and encouraged more Chinese companies to ‘go global’!