There’s Big Money In TRADEMARKS
Bold statement. I know. It’s true though.
In recent times we’ve seen a footballers wife submit a registration for Wagatha Cristie as a trademark, why? To monetise it. She didn’t come up with the term in question, somebody else did. She didn’t have to be the author of it, to be able to register it as a trademark.
Two supermarkets here in the UK have done battle over a logo. LiDL has been using a blue square with a yellow circle for many years, since 1989, and Tesco is using a very similar looking blue square with a yellow circle on it, they started using it in 2020. LiDL naturally feels that Tesco is riding on their tail coats. The case in question fell out to LiDL's advantage. Tesco is wanting to appeal the case.
Interestingly Tesco's solicitors have accused LiDL of hypocrisy when they copied branding of other popular brands such as the Oreo cookies. Now they themselves are on the receiving end.
I heard, on LinkedIn, about a case where an Australian company called their business PayPool, funnily enough PayPal didn't really like that. Because when you say the names out loud they sound remarkably alike. So PayPal defended their mark. Which to be fair is to be expected. Take a guess: who is going to win the battle.
Yes, the startup gained publicity for the stunt and in some cases making it David vs Goliath can be useful.
The law though, is quite clear when it comes to trademarks.
When people are wanting to create a new exciting name for their business, they are not aware of the damage they can cause to themselves, which is why I have created The Unique Branded Blueprint®️ programme to help with not just the legal side of things, also the graphic or sound representation, not because I have suddenly gained training as a graphic designer or composer, rather because I am collaborating with some amazing graphic designers and sound designers or composers to ensure that what you walk away with can actually become registered as a trade mark, thus avoiding those situations described with the recent supermarket cases and the PayPal situation.
So yes, there's big money involved in trademarks. There's something like 21million households that make use of Tesco's Clubcard - imagine the amount of money that represents. There 11,7 million users of their app!
Dont't forget that the EU has done extensive research into the positive effect intellectual property has on businesses. You can see my articles on that topic when you browse my articles here on my site.
Here's the link so that you can book a 30 minute session at your convenience
https://bit.ly/3oMeYi6