Last Fall this billboard ad promoted the wildly popular Panda Express restaurants.
What caught my eye is the verbing of the brand name that some say is a no-no.
This is not a black and white issue for me (pun intended), and I have spilled more than a bit of digital ink on the important trademark and brand verbing question:
- A BrandVerb Uber Alles?
- Googling Doesn’t Break Google Trademark
- When You Verb Your Trademark, You Know What?
- How Realistic is the Risk of Trademark Genericide?
- Visa Branding: A Combined Alpha & Brand Verbing Alert
- Riding the Brandverb Wagon Without a Seat Belt
- This is How You Verb Your Brand
- Just Verb It? A Legal Perspective on Using Brands As Verbs: Part I
- Just Verb It? Part II: A Legal Perspective on Using Brands As Verbs
- Just Verb It? Part III: Testing the “Slippery Slope” of Using Brands as Verbs
- Managing The Legal Risk of “Verbing Up” Brands and Trademarks
There should be no pandemonium when it comes to verbing the Panda brand.
The far more likely pandemonium may occur when the last of the Giant Pandas (currently leased in the United States) are returned from ZooAtlanta to China later this year, unless there is an extraordinary diplomatic event in the meantime.
Thankfully, the generous founders of the Panda Express fast casual Chinese restaurant chain aren’t leasing their Panda marks (they are owned by the company), so perhaps Panda Express might be the best place for Giant Panda lovers to congregate once the last Giant Pandas (Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun, and Xi Lun) on U.S. soil are returned to China before the end of the year.