General

Why distinctiveness beats differentiation

Why distinctiveness beats differentiation

The conventional wisdom holds that differentiation is an essential part of marketing and product creation strategy. Differentiate or die. Being different means essentially that your brand is perceived to be meaningfully different from its competitors and is bought...

Messi turns EU’s top judges into giggling fanboys

Messi turns EU’s top judges into giggling fanboys

Messi turns EU's top judges into giggling fanboys Lionel Messi has just won an important case in the Court of Justice of the European Union. By accepting Messi’s appeal, the judges ignored well established legal principles, rolled out a red carpet and confirmed that...

The battle between brands (trademarks) and technology (patents)

The battle between brands (trademarks) and technology (patents)

Trademarks and patents are both intellectual property assets, but they protect very different things. Patents protect technological inventions - for example, how a product or its feature works, whereas trademarks protect brands, such as product names and logos. They...

Surge in “Covid” trademarks

Surge in “Covid” trademarks

While the coronavirus crisis has devastated economies around the world and led to a decline in overall economic activity, it has spurred a large number of trademark applications starting with the word “Covid”.  According to data from the EU trademark office’s “TmView”...

Booking.com trademark in the USA and the EU

Booking.com trademark in the USA and the EU

The recent decision of the US Supreme Court highlights the challenges of having a brand consisting of a generic name combined with a generic top-level domain. Generic names do not become distinctive trademarks merely by adding a top-level domain name such as .com to...

Slogans as trademarks

Slogans as trademarks

Slogans can be protected as trademarks. However, in practice it is often the case that a slogan does not meet the requirements for registrability. So what is a good and protectable slogan? Slogans can be extremely powerful communication tools. A good slogan is easy to...

“I can’t breathe”. Trademarks and social movements

“I can’t breathe”. Trademarks and social movements

Recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations have raised the question of whether it is possible to protect social movements’ names or logos with trademarks and try to profit off of them. Another question is, should you? When Derek Chauvin put his knee on the neck of...