Articles by Shireen Smith
How Lacoste Lost Its Crocodile Trademark
Last week’s newsletter How to avoid the biggest brand management mistakes, highlighted that the role of our business name and signs like logos, taglines, characters, or sounds is to enable buyers to recognise that it’s us. Symbols like the Nike swoosh become well known because they’re consistently used year in, year out, for years – initially, accompanied by the brand name and then, once they’ve gained widespread recognition, on their own.
How to Avoid the Biggest Brand management Mistakes
Apple and MacDonalds are household brands that have lost their EU trademarks in recent years, meaning that third parties may now freely use ‘Think Different’ and Big Mac in the EU. The reason the marks were lost is that the companies were unable to prove that they had been genuinely using these registered signs in the previous 5 years. When that happens, the other party who wants to use the marks will be able to apply to have the trademark registrations cancelled.
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Why Every Business Needs a Brand Manager
Are you starting a new project? Or rebranding? Or growing your business to sell? Do you: Know what ‘brand’ means and signifies to the value of your business? Know when and how to protect your IP? Have the knowledge and skills in Brand IP and branding to be your own brand manager? You as the business owner need a solid understanding of Brand and IPso you can be its brand manager.
The copyright status of AI-generated works
As AI platforms like Midjourney, or Dall-E2 are widely adopted the question, that is increasingly being asked is about the copyright position. It’s possible to create striking artistic images, music, poems and the like using Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms so people naturally wonder who owns the rights in the output? What are the risks of using the output commercially? One common trait these AI platforms share is that they first need to learn how to simulate human thinking.
Do You Know The Best Way to Protect Your Intellectual Property?
Intellectual Property (IP) is part and parcel of business, yet it abounds with misconceptions. For example, it’s not generally appreciated that protecting IP starts by understanding how to choose effective names, address questions of brand architecture, such as after a merger, as well as to know how the various IP rights protect key aspects of products and services. IP is about managing competition.
Brand Strategy for Start-ups and Beyond
Many believe that to build an effective brand you just need to identify an ideal customer, market to them with emotional appeals and thus gain a following of loyalists who will evangelize the brand. In this week’s newsletter and podcast, we explore why the notion of brand love doesn’t square with reality, despite having widespread currency. Instead, we would do well to focus on basics like raising awareness that we exist, and being recognisably like ourselves.
What is the Copyright Status of AI Generated Works?
As AI platforms like Midjourney, or Dall-E2 are widely adopted the question that is increasingly being asked is about the copyright position. It’s possible to create striking artistic images, music, poems and the like using Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms so people naturally wonder who owns the rights in the output? What are the risks of using the output commercially? One common trait these AI platforms share is that they first need to learn how to simulate human thinking.
Leveraging Consumer Rituals For Brand Advantage
Our lives are filled with rituals and each one represents an opportunity to position a brand and give it a more meaningful role in the lives of its consumers. Rituals are a succession of steps (behaviors, words, actions, or objects) performed according to a set sequence. Unlike habits, the value of rituals is that they induce an emotional transformation and a change in mood and mental state.
Putting Brand Positioning On Pause
I once sat in an auditorium with a group of marketers to hear Jack Trout and Al Ries talk about their new book, “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind.” They handed out a narrow orange (orange!) pamphlet that highlighted their ideas — I still have it somewhere. In the 1970s, Positioning pushed forward the perceptive notion that by framing your product in certain ways, you “positioned” your product in people’s minds versus its competitors .
How to Decide If A Name Is Too Risky For Your Business
Match Group successfully challenged the Muslim dating app, Muzmatch’s, trade mark registrations in the EU and the U.K. And in the latest development of the dispute the High Court ruled that Muzmatch has unfairly benefited from Match Group’s reputation and investment in its brand and was riding on Match Group’s coattails for undeserved gain. The dispute with Match has cost the founder, Shahzad Younas, an investment banker, over £1,000,000 to date.
Central Role of IP and Marketing in Business Design
Most people assume intellectual property is primarily a distress purchase. This is one of the many misconceptions about IP that I’ve noticed since starting my business in 2004. It frustrates me that people turn to me when they’re copied, assuming this is the kind of work I’m engaged in doing, when they’ve never consulted me before about their IP.
Thirteen Reasons Why Businesses Fail
It’s well known that the failure rate of small businesses is extremely high. Entrepreneur.com rates people’s chances of surviving in business beyond 5 years at 50/50, while the chances of failure after 10 years are 70%. I wanted to explore this to find out what people attribute this low success rate to, and to compile my own list of the 13 issues businesses could focus on to avoid failure and thrive.
Should Lawyers Offer A Brand Creation Service?
Though many important decisions people make when creating a new brand identity are intellectual property decisions, IP lawyers are rarely involved in the naming and brand creation process. As a trademark lawyer, I began to ask myself why?. I had written books to explain the central role of IP in branding, Legally Branded and Intellectual Property Revolution and realised that to get the answers I was seeking I’d have to dig deeper and find out what’s involved to create a brand.
Think Intellectual Property First to Protect Your Brand From Competition
About Latest Posts Shireen Smith is an intellectual property lawyer specializing in trademarks and brands, with years of experience in marketing small businesses. Her TUNED framework is designed to guide you to create a brand that attracts sales for the long term. The following is excerpted from “Brand Tuned” by Shireen Smith (Practical Inspiration Publishing, September 2021) with permission.
The Key Role Of Positioning Strategy
If understanding the market is about understanding yourself to set your business strategy while also understanding your customers and their needs and wants, then positioning is about what you do to make those two things meet up. The purpose of positioning is to help buyers to quickly understand your offering, so when they are searching for solutions to buy, they can identify why your brand is relevant for the job they are trying to get done.
The First Costly Mistake People Make When Branding their Big Idea or Rebranding Their Business
Eureka! You have hit on an idea that you believe is a spectacular business idea. Or you have joined the league of inventors with one breathtaking invention of your own. You can hardly wait to launch it and let everybody know what they have been missing. Or maybe you have come up with a winning idea for a new business or product, or you simply have an idea you want to turn into a business.
Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival news: We are famous!…
Latest update from Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival : We are famous! 🤣🤣 Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival on The Chase! Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival Source We are famous! 🤣🤣 Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival on The Chase! ... See MoreSee Less Play We want to give everyone an update on our first ticket resale which happened on Tuesday this week....... We had only 26 adult tickets returned to us and over 2000 people in the queue so the chances of being successful were low.
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