Last month William Lozito, over at Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog, reported on Twitter’s new bird logo, and the multitude of don’ts associated with the launch of it.
Having so many don’ts seems a bit contrary to Twitter’s prior rather lax or laissez-faire approach to
Last week, Jack Ellis of World Trademark Review, did a very interesting piece on something called “invisible branding”: “Trademark-free marketing: should other companies follow Ford?”
In it, Ellis explores Ford Motor Company’s recent decision to utilize no trademark or brand references in Ford’s “Go Further” advertising campaign.
It is interesting timing for Ford to
To assist in curbing the knock-off problem depicted above, Austrian-based Red Bull is on the move with its recent attempt to register — as a non-traditional trademark in the U.S. — the following design in connection with energy drinks, soft drinks, and sports drinks:
Here is the description of the mark approved by the USPTO
Which brand do you believe is better equipped to enjoy the benefits of using a non-verbal logo?
In other words, which brand can more easily shed the words from the visual identity, in the hopes of joining the ranks of these likely famous non-verbal logos and brand signals?
My answer below the jump.Continue Reading The Colonel or The Bell?
I’m happy to share with you that on Tuesday February 8, 2011, I’m speaking about one of my favorite topics, non-traditional trademarks, with my friends Linda McLeod of Finnegan Henderson and Stephen Feingold of Kilpatrick Townsend, in a webinar program put on by Strafford Publications, Inc. The webinar begins at 1:00 PM EST and Noon CST.
Not your garden variety trademark for anything, let alone, ammunition:
Anyone able to decipher it, beyond the consumer obviously being happy in the end?
It was recently published for opposition at the USPTO.
This is the epitome of a famous non-verbal logo and trademark that truly can stand alone (we have discussed others too):
Hat tip to John Welch over at the TTABlog who did a very nice write up on this interesting decision: Apple, Inc. v. Echospin, LLC.
Basically, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of
Last week, I blogged about a federally-registered emoticon trademark, one that I discovered at 30,000 feet, here. Emoticons as trademarks? Does the idea make you want to roll your eyes like Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig as Aunt Linda? Brace yourself, they appear inclined to stay, for at least a while!
Two weeks ago I couldn’t have told you
I’m mostly wearing my consumer hat today, having just returned from a youth baseball tournament in Phoenix this past weekend, where we stayed at the six month new Drury Inn & Suites shown above. As you may recall, and if so, you will have noticed the irony because, last September I riffed about the Drury name and asked whether a name change might be in order, to avoid the inevitably negative dreary name associations.
In case you’re wondering, I didn’t set out to test my previously stated opinions about the name and whether it actually represented the brand well, but as it clearly was meant to be, and as it clearly was meant outside of my control, the team we traveled with selected this hotel, so I anxiously awaited the trip and then paid close attention to whether my perceptions about the name would match the actual brand experience.
I’ll have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by all three Ps: The property, the people, and the price. It was almost as though someone had read my previous post, from about six months ago, and purposefully set out to distance the name from the actual brand experience (after all, you can’t even read the brand name in the website photo can you?), building a beautiful and non-dreary hotel property with real curb-appeal and attractive interior ammenities, staffing it with amazingly cheery, caring and genuine employees, all at a very reasonable price point. More likely, my prior post simply was based on incomplete information. Oh, and this is not a paid endorsement, and I did pay full price for the room, or I’d have to tell you, as we learned from Steven Weinberg’s analysis of the new FTC guidelines applicable to bloggers. Anyway, this got me thinking about judging books, and even brands, by their covers.
We’re all taught at an early age, not to judge a book by its cover, but we do. I suspect that most of us also judge a brand by its cover too. Cover of a brand?Continue Reading Judging A Brand By Its Cover
Some things you should do, just because you can. For example, when I was sixteen, I jumped out of a plane at 3,000 feet, with a parachute tethered to the plane, of course, landing near a chicken farm, surrounded by barbed wire, somewhere in rural North Carolina. That was an experience I’ll never forget, but I haven’t repeated it, at least