Brand Planning – A Lesson Learned From A Golden Bear

For companies, brand planning is an important aspect in brand execution. As far as we know, the best brands are also the best planned brands including the legal side. In a recent turn of events Lindt, the Swiss chocolatier, has emerged victorious in a long-standing battle with Haribo, the German confectionary company that has been attempting to stop Lindt from selling gold chocolate bears since 2012.  According to an article published in the Guardian, Haribo had won the first round of the battle, when a German court banned future sales of the Lindt chocolate bears in December 2012. That ruling, however, has since been overturned on appeal, noting that there was no likelihood of confusion between the two products.

Interestingly, Lindt had lost its fight against German chocolatiers, Confiserie Riegelein, which was producing similar chocolate bunnies. One might say what-goes-around-comes-around when it comes to trademarks and confectionary sweet companies, however, Haribo is likely to be bitter about this ruling.

The point in case was that, according to Haribo, the chocolate bear wrapped in gold foil accompanied with a red ribbon was an appropriation of Haribo’s Goldbären brand and to that effect, the chocolate bear was consolidating a market position on the back of investment and brand awareness built by Haribo. Lindt, on the other hand, argued that the golden bear had been a variation of the golden eastern bunny chocolate and not an illegal imitation of the golden gummy bear or its corresponding logo.

Brands And Competition

Not long ago we wrote about Nestlé being blocked by rival competitor Cadbury’s in our post on: 3D Trademarks & Registered Designs – KitKat Loses Legal Fight for Four-Finger Chocolate bar.

What is easy to take from this is that where industries are particularly competitive, such as in confectionary food industry, it is a brand’s distinctiveness and the awareness surrounding that brand which allows it to survive on a global level. This is where brand planning comes in handy to assure that you know where your brand is heading, legally.

As a lawyer said “The cost of these cases is significant, but it’s about being seen to take action and ringfencing your brand and intellectual property rights as much as you can.”

This is important because trademarks are increasingly relevant in today’s digital economy, as the advent of the internet and development of internet based technologies has opened trade channels on a truly global level not seen before. Trademarks offer the most powerful forms of intellectual property (IP) protection for any brand logo or name and therefore, it is imperative that a certain amount of consideration is paid to trademarks as part of any business strategy.

Below are some trademark considerations from International Trade Mark Association (INTA) for you to bear in mind.

The Portfolio

Every business will have a trademark portfolio. This will comprise of everything from registered trademarks, marks or symbols which are in use but not yet registered, acquired trademarks through licenses, co-branding agreements with other companies and also domain names which include the trade name or trademark within it. Creating a family of trademarks and trade names will help create a stronger brand but can also strengthen the protection afforded that brand.

Brand Planning And Management

Securing rights as early as possible is always highly recommended. On that note, it is important to budget accordingly because registering a trademark in every country around the world can be both expensive and also impractical for a small-to-medium enterprises (SME) or early stage businesses. The strategy is to carefully consider which jurisdictions from a sales and marketing prospective are key to your business, conduct the necessary availability searches and register a trademark to perfect your brand in that territory as soon as it is practically possible.

An important note in managing your trademarks is also ensuring that they are used, or you risk them being revoked.

Enforcement 

Keeping on top of a trademark portfolio does not mean just registering them. To increase and maximize the value in a trademark, a certain amount of maintenance is involved. This includes actively monitoring the use of your mark and actively policing your trademark with cease and desist and take down notices when you see that it is being used without authorization. A good way to police you trademark is to monitor competitor activities and trademark applications which are published in trademark journals. To do this, you may want to invest in a brand watch service which can help protect your trademarks in the most efficient way possible by bringing to attention any issues that arise as they come.

Given the online nature of most business, a good way to enforce your rights in your domain names is to make sure that you have a registered trademark and that name is contained in your domain name.

Azrights has helped many SMEs and ambitious entrepreneurs to help secure their rights, commercialize their brands and enforce their IP rights. Visit our trademark registration, trademark search, trademark disputes and brand protection services pages to see how we may help to implement an efficient and cost effective strategy for you. Alternatively, contact us and speak with one of our specialist team members to see how we can help in your brand planning.