Brand creation and legal protection of of a name requires more than just trade mark registration.
What you register as a trade mark should fit within what we call your overall brand architecture.
Brand architecture is a systematic way of organising the identity of the different products, services, messages, or elements of an organisation so that people both within and outside the organisation understand its brands.
!["trade-mark-registration2"]("/images/stories/lightbulb/trade-mark-registration2.gif")
A basic requirement for brand architecture is to align the following potential identifiers of a business or its products or services:
- Trade mark
- Logo
- Domain name
- Trading name
- Business name
- Company name
- Descriptor
- Tag line
- Packaging design
- Labelling
- Swing tag
- Unique phone number
A simple fact is that when an appropriate combination of these are aligned properly legal rights are strengthened. This makes it generally easier, faster and more economical to take legal action against infringers.
Sometimes the alignment is so out of whack that your money is better spent fixing your branding “alphabet soup” than trying to sue claimed infringers.
Alignment is worth it, because it’s part of building a successful brand to gain at least seven benefits.
- Secure goodwill
- Build brand loyalty
- Become a symbol of quality or value
- Differentiate a product or service or organisation
- Encourage the confidence of employees, investors, consumers, licensees, collaborators and donors
- Provide “armour” against potential competitors and infringers
- Store value as an asset recognised by legal and accounting principles.
!["trade-mark-registration-wine"]("/images/stories/lightbulb/trade-mark-registration-wine.gif")
All great brands are designed to not have uncertainty about their brand architecture.
The historical leader in brand architecture in the food sector has been Nestle. Apple and many others are certainly expert at it too.
Start-ups and small companies can also benefit. Take a look at great wine labels, like Penfolds, they have clarity in line with the accompanying wine label brand architecture graphic.
Our advice on client names and identifiers is rolled into our trade mark registration legal services.
So the fees clients pay for trade mark registration also cover advice from us on how to align other identifiers. The benefit is clients get more than just a trade mark registration.
Contact us with any questions or requests.
Recent comments on posts