Related Class Topic - Please refer to the
notes from week 2 regarding web privacy/trademarks and chapter 14 reading on search engine optimization.
Overview of Article - This article is not a legal-heavy review of online trademark law but rather an illustration of how the internet has had an effect on trademark enforcement. This article tells the story of a small snack-food entrepreneur, Warren Wilson, who got engaged in a major trademark battle with Frito-Lay (owned by Pepsi) when he tried to register the trademark for a new product he created called Pretzel Crisps (flat pretzel snacks). Frito Lay has biggest market share in pretzel segment with Rold Gold and a similar product called Stacy's pita chips.
“This fight is about a big company that wants to dominate the snack food category by crushing a little company like ours rather than by competing with us.”
“This fight is about a big company that wants to dominate the snack food category by crushing a little company like ours rather than by competing with us.”
Frito-Lay contends that Pretzel Crisps cannot be registered as a trademark because it is a generic term. Meaning the combination of ‘pretzel’ and ‘crisp’ gains no meaning as a phrase over and above the generic meaning of its constituent terms.
"Brand experts and trademark lawyers say the value of simple, easily understood brand names has escalated in the Internet era because consumers are more likely to find such products while doing searches on the Web."
Key point: Trademark is associated with search engine optimization. The reason you trademark a word or symbol is because you believe it has value. Frito Lay was focused less on the pretzel crisp product than on the words "pretzel crisp" because in this new digital era words are part of search engine value optimization.
Discussion Question 1: Do you think Apple should be able to trademark the term "app store"? That is another example of a trademark battle ongoing with Microsoft and Amazon.
Web's knowledge management capabilities have empowered society to discover violations of trademark law much more easily. Trademark has always been enforced but now by simply typing a few keystrokes you can see everything and anything related to the brand or trademark in question.
Result has been difficult on small entrepreneurs because cost of fighting trademark battles is high and due to the raised stakes big firms are on the attack looking to silence any perceived competitors. In the Pretzel Crisps example, Warren Wilson expended $1 million on legal fees.
Discussion Question 2: Should a company that loses a trademark dispute have to remunerate the affected company for their legal losses?
Warren Wilson has to prove that their is a secondary meaning to the term "pretzel crisps" beyond just the idea of a thin pretzels that are crispy. A lot at stake as retail sales of Pretzel Crisps exceeded $100 million.
Discussion Question 3: Is it easier or harder to manage a brand's value in the current digital world than it was 20 years ago? What are pros and cons of user generated content related to your brand?
The first question to me seems kind of irrelevant in that most people will associate apple with having the "app store" regardless if that is what its technically called. This is because it is what the store has been known as for awhile now, fighting the title just because its a generic term like "pretzel crisps" won't do anything. As for question 2, simply put no, this is not divorce court or an injury suit. This, in most cases, is a well funded company trying to fight off competition; and since they are doing the attacking wining should not be supplemented by a repayment of trial fees, it seems absurd to me. For Q3, i think it is a very complicated scenario to manage a brand nowadays because of user generated content. It is a constant back and forth battle to challenge any issues or faults that a blogger points out with your brand which could, depending on their influence, severely harm the image. There is of course the bright side that if a company operates other aspects of itself in a good way then the company could easily gain fantastic image reports from the same blogger. Although it is easier to sway a brand image now, back 20 yrs ago i would imagine it was much easier to have a very consistent image.
ReplyDeletePersonally I don’t think that Apple should be able to trademark the term “app store”. App Store is a painfully generic term meaning application store and doesn’t provide any more meaning to Apple than it would to a competitor like Android or Microsoft. I would say that Apple should be able to trademark the term “Apple Store” like I’m sure they have because the combination of these two words gains specific meaning when put together. To answer question 2, In the event that big businesses arbitrarily attempt to attack smaller businesses, yes I think that they should have to remunerate the affected company for their legal losses. I think the phrase “pretzel crisp” gains a more specific meaning when put together. When I think of pretzels I think of the generic word “crunchy”. Just to add, I have purchased pretzel crisps and they are pretty damn good. To answer question 3, I believe that it is much harder to manage a brands value in the digital world than it was 20 years ago. Back in the day it was much more expensive to manage your brand and build brand awareness. You had to pay for all of your marketing messages through traditional media i.e. television, newspapers, billboards, etc. but you did have control over the message that was being delivered. In this day and age, blogs and social media allow more engagement and WOM exposure to your brand. Digital media provides an inexpensive vehicle for building brand awareness; however, companies give up some control to consumers of what message is being delivered about their products or services.
ReplyDeleteQuestion #1: It seems like Apple is trying to trademark and patton everything they possible can. I strongly agree with Noah. The term “app store” is very generic and if apple was able to trademark the term that would mean that other company’s would not be able to compete. It is always good to have competition because that is what forces a company to stay up to date and always attempting to improve or come out with a whole new product. That said, I think apple can trademark a term like “I app store” instead.
ReplyDeleteQuestions # 2: I do not believe that a company that loses a trademark dispute should be able to have remuneration. I think that the company was doing something wrong and they should take responsibility for their mistakes and actions. The company coming in was doing the right thing and that is the way it should be.
Question # 3: I think it is much harder to manage a brand’s value in the current digital world compared to 20 years ago. Some cons include having to be aware of all the different consumers around the world and you must understand each market and their perceptions. You must take age, values, location and much more into consideration. The pros related to generated content relating to your brand is being friendly versus coming off as hassling to consumers.
1) I don't think Apple should be able to trademark the term App store. To me, it's become enough of a commonly used slang word (like Kleenex or Google) that I think Apple would have a hard time enforcing any trademark claims.
ReplyDelete2)I don't think renumeration is necessary unless a big company loses a lawsuit against a small company. A lot of times, we see big company's throw their weight around unfairly and essentially steal trademarks or intellectual property from small companies because the small ones can't afford the legal costs. If there was a way to regulate this, I think we'd see an increase in the success rates of small businesses and we'd see more creative ideas being developed.
3)It's much harder to manage a brand's value with all the technology available today because the current digital age gives brands many more touchpoints with consumers compared to before. I guess the biggest con related to this is that it requires brands to spend more time evaluating their marcom efforts, to ensure that EVERYTHING presented to customers across all communication channels is consistent. Some things may be common sense, but others such as chosen websites for advertising, method of advertising, and length of advertisement require a lot more work. On the positive side, the digital age does allow brands to increase their exposure to a wider range of customers, although I guess that still increases the amount of interactions that they need to manage.
1)I sure don't recall ever hearing the word "app" used before Apple popularized "iPhone apps." I get that it's just short for application, but it felt at the time like a new way of using the word for a new product. While mobile phone software may have existed from other companies, no one had previously called that software "apps." I think they have some sort of legit claim to coining a new phrase for a new product.
ReplyDelete2)I don't think give money to the affected company is necessary. The company has their own responsibility for their actions. Why the wining company should take their loss? It not make sense for me.
3)It's much harder to manage a brand's value with all the technology available today because the current digital world gives companies different ways to connect with their consumers. If companies seek to manage their brand value, they must understand where this value originates. They need to know more than the destination. They also need to understand what it takes to reach that destination. Nowadays, customers has their needs towards on the various media platform. In order to fit customers need and desire, the company has to focus on deliver brand image in the right way. New trends in the social networking point out the current company need focus on the social media more and more. It is very useful to build company awareness in less expensive way.
I think had Apple coined app store when they first started using it, it would have been no problem. But now, it's so commonly used, it has become a generic term, and thus they cannot trademark it. What surprises me is how many products I see named iSomething. I wonder why they don't have the exclusive rights to putting a lower case i in front of a word.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion you shouldn’t be able to register a trade mark of generic words because is the only way to keep competition fair. Companies have to be creative with their names and brands in order to differentiate themselves. But in the case of App Store, Apple was the one that first started using app so they can have the right to trade mark it but not Applications. The problem I see is that huge companies as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google have too much power over the industry and the consumers. Making them like a “ghost monopoly”. It doesn’t matter how much Apple charges for their products the consumers will pay because of how strongly they positioned their brand. The same with Google it didn’t matter that they change the privacy policies, people will continue to use their products. As discussed in class technology changes faster than the controlling policies, so this gives those companies a great competitive advantage. Which for their competitors is very difficult to increase their market share and position within the online navigator´s audience? We need to have a controlling process that keep up with the changes in technology.
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