As you know, we’ve spun a lot of fabric over the last few years on the topic of brand and trademark truncation. Marketers seem to love the informality, emotionality, and efficiency of truncated brand names. I suppose trademark types love them too, since they can have the tendency to spin off a variety of complicated legal issues — all… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Brand Meaning
When a Brand’s Visual Identity Has Serious Trademark Implications
Posted in Branding, Sight, TrademarksThe strategic use of color can make all the difference in the world — particularly the trademark world – when creating the visual identity for a brand, as color can be a very helpful legal tool in communicating the brand’s underlying meaning. And the meaning of a brand and its trademark, or a portion of its trademark, can have many legal… Continue Reading
Unintended Irony in a Business Name?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, TrademarksCommon sense probably dictates that if you take the time and effort to create, build, and position signage to help sell what it is you’re selling, the sign should be visible, right? Especially in these tough times, when you’re selling real estate, and this is the view from the road: Then again, maybe not, especially if you’ve adopted a business… Continue Reading
Brands That Cut Corners, Literally . . .
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Food, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, TrademarksWendy’s is a brand that claims to not cut corners: "For Wendy’s, square isn’t so much a shape as a promise to not cut corners." As a trademark type, the focus on the square shape and surrounding symbolism leaves me wondering whether Wendy’s is cleverly laying the groundwork for claiming non-traditional trademark rights in the… Continue Reading
lower case branding & visual identity
Posted in BrandingJust so you know, it about pushed me over the edge to have a blog post title with no capitalization. Not even one letter. In other words, all minuscules, no majuscules. It doesn’t seem right – to me anyway, as a trademark type. Just like the first letter in the first word of a sentence must be a… Continue Reading
Does Your Branding Pass The SNIFF Test?
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing—Anthony Shore, Operative Words Let’s be honest: There’s a lot of bullshit in branding. It’s a pity — and it’s a threat. Because today, brand or marketing communications exuding any whiff of bull will be distrusted, discredited and derided by today’s cynical audiences. And no audience is more cynical than the 18-34 years-olds — the… Continue Reading
Tripartite Branding Trouble: The Name is Suk?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Goodwill, Marketing, Trademarks"The name is Bond, James Bond," said Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Daniel Craig, among others, countless times in film, as part of the famous 007 series. An ideal name for a secret agent. A name and line not easily forgotten, as brands and taglines should be. And then, there are some names you’d like to forget, but can’t, especially if… Continue Reading
Exposing Two-Face Brands
Posted in AlphaWatch, Branding, Goodwill, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, TrademarksI’m not talking about brands that say one thing and do another. I’m not talking about brands that don’t live up to their promise. I’m literally talking about brands with two faces. One face may be confident, complicated, technical, professional, and/or formal. Let’s call him, Stephen. The other face might be friendly, simple, approachable, engaging, and/or informal… Continue Reading
In Praise of Folly: Rantings of a Right Brain Activist
Posted in Guest Bloggers—Jack Cuffari, Jack Cuffari Consulting and Brand Smacks Blog I know – a catchy title for a blog, eh? It’s actually the title of a treatise by Erasmus of Rotterdam, and no, he wasn’t the Wharton grad behind the recent boom in Netherlands-based financing. Sounds like it can’t possibly have anything to do with business, after all… Continue Reading
Branding in Pop Culture: How Brands Avoid Negative Associations
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Social Networking, Trademarks—by David Mitchel, Vice President of Marketing at Norton Mitchel Marketing Branding is an intricate and complicated process. Every aspect of the marketing mix must be handled with care. Brand managers watch their brands in the same manner that most parents care for a newborn child. However, there is an element of marketing communications that… Continue Reading
The D-Word: What Ever You Do, Don’t “Describe” Your Brand!
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, TrademarksFrequently brand owners find themselves in the position of wanting or needing to explain the thinking behind their name, mark, and/or brand. Sometimes the explanations appear publicly on product packaging, websites, catalogs, brochures, advertising, and frequently in press releases, or perhaps in statements to reporters, especially when trademark litigation concerning the brand is involved. Such explanations about the brand’s… Continue Reading
Duets Blog Authors
Steve Baird
Just so you know, I'm all about brands and the law, both professionally and personally. I regularly annoy family and friends in retail stores by focusing on product labels—not to buy the product, but to read the fine print and ask, "Who owns these brands" and "Did they really register those marks?" More...
Brent Lorentz
Although I wish I could say my path to the law was the result of a lifelong dream or calling, it was more the result mere curiosity and an affinity for leather-bound books. More...
Tiffany Blofield
Although my initial career path was to be one of the Supremes (not the musically talented ones with platform shoes and sequins, but rather, the nine wearing sensible shoes and pressed black robes in DC), I will likely stay in Minnesota as I have never lived anywhere else. More...
Brad Walz
My law career started on the ice…as a defensive hockey player (we’re not talking professionally…and if I were, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into law). More...
Derek Allen
In hindsight, writing about creativity and the law may have always been in the cards for me. I began training for a career in litigation at an early age by finding ways to disagree with pretty much anyone about pretty much anything. In my longest-running “case,” I argued with my middle school math teacher, Mrs. Jabs, for the better part of four years over whether, even if I got the right answer, I had to show my work to get full credit. More...
Martha Engel
Although my interest in gadgetry and my aptitude for math eventually led me to become an engineer, my ad executive father and artistically gifted mother fostered an appreciation for the creative from a young age. More...
Anjali Shankar
When I was in elementary and middle school, I loved writing short stories. Creativity and imagination seem to come naturally to people when they are young. More...
Timothy Sitzmann
I have always considered myself to be a creative person. Full disclosure: I'm not claiming that I've created anything good, merely that I have created things that exist.More...