How to Tell Your Client “No” and Protect Their Brand Too.
There are a lot of situations where allegations of trademark infringement are counter productive. As you’ve read here, overly aggressive enforcement can lead to unexpected, damaging, consequences for brands.
- Deutsche Telekom: threatened a tech blog for using magenta headlines, the color they reserved for tMobile.
- Monster Cable: the litigious audio wire vendor has threatend baseball parks (yes, plural), mini-golf, and even clothing stores for using the common word “monster” in their names.
- Toyota: threatened customers for photographing their own cars.
- Jack Daniels: threatened the fan site “I Love Jack Daniels”, which had become more popular than their own brand site. They ending both the site, and undoubtedly a portion of the love.
But aren’t brands obligated to protect their marks with zeal?
J. Scott Evans, Senior Legal Director for Global Brand and Trademark at Yahoo! Inc, and Paul D. McGrady, Jr, Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig LLP have something to say about that, and you can listen in for free. What if the facts don’t support their case, or if enforcement would be a public relations nightmare? The two suggest that talking clients in from the ledge of ill-considered litigation is part of brand protection too.
Fair disclosure, I’m aware of this program because I work for its sponsor. That makes me as biased as one can be about a free program which, in my opinion, will be both useful and as fun as trademark law gets. If you provide IP counsel you may want to register now, or tell someone who should.
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1 Response to "How to Tell Your Client “No” and Protect Their Brand Too."
May 21, 2010
Your article is good, I like it very much!