Search results

This study aims to investigate how a firm’s uncertainty avoidance – as indicated by the headquarters’ national culture – impacts firm performance by affecting exploratory (product innovation) and exploitative (brand trademark protection) activities. It aims to show that firms characterized by high levels of uncertainty avoidance may be less competitive in the exploratory product development stage, but may be more competitive in the exploitative commercialization stage by producing more durable brands.

The study uses data from US Software Security Industry (SSI) trademarks, registered by firms from 11 countries during 1993–2000, that provide 2,911 trademarks and a panel of 18,213 observations. It uses the SSI database to identify the number of product innovations introduced by firms.

Results show that uncertainty avoidance lowers the rate of product innovation, but helps firms to appropriate more value by greater protection of their brands. Uncertainty avoidance thus creates an exploration–exploitation trade-off.

This study provides useful insights for managers regarding where to locate a firm’s front-end development (product innovation) activities and commercialization (brand trademarking protection) activities.

This is the first study to demonstrate the influence of a cultural trait on both explorative and exploitative stages simultaneously. As a methodological contribution, it shows how objective, longitudinal brand trademark data can be used to analyze the long-term impact of marketing activities on firm performance.

This research aims to examine a number of legal sources for evidence that US marketers were interested in protecting their brand identities in the 1800s.

The research examines historical legal records including registrations for commercial prints and labels, design patents and trademarks as well as other legal records. The work discusses the evolution of the concept of brand identity by examining various legal methods that were used to try to protect brand identity from imitation.

The research suggests that marketer interest in the development and protection of brand identity preceded the US Civil War and confirms that this interest was led by marketers of patent medicines, tobacco and liquor. However, the study also demonstrates strong interest by marketers of many other types of products from disposable products to durable manufactured items.

Many original records were lost in the 1836 Patent Office fire or have been simply lost. Some of the databases examined are too large to be comprehensively examined.

The examination of legal records from this period of uncertainty shows how the practice of brand identification led to the concept of brand identity: the legal data examined offer a wealth of information for marketing historians.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of preventative counter-ambush marketing initiatives and rights protection strategies, providing an historical view of rights management and the International Olympic Committee’s sponsorship protection initiatives through ambush marketing’s formative years.

In examining the antecedents and implications of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s (COC) forward-thinking approach to ambush marketing protection, and to explore the development of preventative counter-ambush initiatives, an historical examination of IOC and COC policies and protocols regarding ambushing and sponsorship protection over a 30-year period was undertaken, informing the development of a proposed model of proactive commercial rights management.

The findings indicate that a progressive shift in the counter-ambush activities of major commercial rights holders may be underway: increasingly, the COC has stressed education and communication as key components of their commercial rights protection strategy, in lieu of enforcing the legal protection provided them by the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act of 2007. The resultant commercial rights management model proposed reflects this proactive approach, and illustrates the need for events and sponsorship stakeholders to Anticipate, (Re)Act and Advocate.

The study offers a contemporary perspective into counter-ambush strategies within the context of the COC’s brand protection measures and industry practice. The proactive approach to commercial rights management explored represents a significant step in ambush marketing prevention on the part of the COC.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze an unusual legal development concerning brand protection in Thailand. The case study elucidates many key concepts in brand management and the political economy of Thailand.

A case study approach is adopted, in which a chronology of key events surrounding a supreme court decision are developed. An analysis of the causes and consequences of the verdict is presented drawing on inputs from legal and business experts.

The decision at the center of this case is ground breaking. Unlike conventional infringement decisions that are based on tangible designs of products, this case established protection of a brand image based on advertisements aired on television. It is argued that the decision went too far in the protection of trade dress and may potentially limit freedom and creativity for future marketing campaigns.

Intellectual property protection in developing economies such as in Thailand can be complicated by a lack of clear laws and the political and social influence of the parties involved.

The case provides the first analysis of a potentially consequential supreme court decision with links to the unique context of the political economy of Thailand.

This paper aims to discuss the early brand protection efforts of Coca‐Cola.

The paper examines the hundreds of trademark infringement challenges brought by Coca‐Cola in courts and before the US Patent and Trademark Office and develops a tripartite system of categorizing these challenges by primary legal issue.

Coca‐Cola developed several innovations in brand identity protection including challenges to a wide variety of similar names, logos and packaging, the use of detectives in service settings and the use of consumer psychological evidence in legal proceedings. Ultimately, it protected it name against those rivals that closely imitated both words in its name or words similar to Coca or Coke. However, it was unable to obtain exclusive rights to the word cola which became the generic designation for such drinks.

Even today, the scope of Coca‐Cola's brand protection efforts provide a useful model for modern brands. This work also presents and summarizes important historical data.

This study examines Coca‐Cola's brand protection efforts and legal challenges in much greater detail than previous historical works on Coca‐Cola.

Provides a practical snapshot of the legal situation governing the protection and exploitation of brand power within the European “grey market”. Predominantly, this occurs through the use and enforcement of intellectual property rights, namely the trade mark. However, legal events over the last year or so have fundamentally affected the antics of grey marketers and the subsequent powers granted to the owners of a range of branded marks, including famously lucrative names such as Levi’s, Nike and Calvin Klein. The recent pronouncements from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg together with national court decisions have created a degree of confusion. The landmark Silhouette Case has proved immensely controversial with regard to the operation of trade mark law throughout the European Union (EU). The decision seems to prohibit the importation into the EU of branded goods or services, unless such activity has been specifically consented to by the brand owner. At a glance, the culmination of these legal precedents seems to have dealt the grey market operators and traders a severe blow – with potentially adverse effects for the European consumer as well. Seeks to analyse recent events by providing the backdrop to the controversy and then putting the cases into perspective so as to offer sound and practical advice to all interested parties in the now modified grey market environment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the managerial challenges of shared brands, defined as arrangements whereby a single brand name acts as the sole or principal identity for the products of two or more firms, and where brand management is governed by an entity independent from a single firm.

An exploratory, theory‐building approach is adopted. The paper draws from the brand equity and institutional economics literatures to develop a conceptualisation of club brands, of which shared brands represent one type. The managerial challenges for the latter are explored with reference to secondary evidence and two cases based in the food sector.

The analysis proposes that the exclusive and non‐rivalrous characteristics of club brands pose specific managerial challenges in the key decision‐making phases of brand identity creation, reputation building and reputation protection. Case exploration of shared brands illustrates these challenges, although some are attributed to the distinct governance structure of shared brands rather than their club characteristics.

Through a focus on shared brands, the paper offers an original exploration of a type of branding arrangement which has been overlooked in the literature, but whose use is growing amongst practitioners. It also offers a novel conceptualisation of brands that highlights the bias towards individualism in mainstream branding theory and its preoccupation with customer‐facing managerial tasks.

The purpose of this paper is to present the opportunities for and challenges of the trademark protection of country brands.

Insights into the challenges and possibilities of country brand trademark protection are identified using New Zealand as a case study. This evaluation is divided into four sections. In the first section, the relations and differences between brands and trademarks are discussed in the context of the country trademark. Then, possible sources of country trademarks are identified. Next, the benefits and challenges of creating and managing country trademarks are discussed based on the case of the New Zealand Fern Mark. The final section addresses the determiners of country trademark implementation and offers recommendations for country brand managers.

This study makes the case that a nation's heritage is a rich source of country trademarks. The selection of country trademarks must ensure that the chosen symbol conveys meaning and associations that serve a country's often broad range of offerings and resonate with a diversity of stakeholder audiences.

Governance structures need to be established to manage a country trademark to ensure the country brand's integrity. This includes a licensing system and protocols to prevent successive governments from altering the brand's essence which would destroy its equity built up over time.

This paper extends the concept of trademarks, once the domain of products and service brands, to the emerging field of place brand management.

Examines the current protection afforded to brand owners within the realms of cyberspace, specifically the World Wide Web. Trade mark law currently provides a benchmark for the law and its attempt to regulate the problematical operation of Internet addresses and Web sites. These commercial sites can be contacted by potential customers through the operation of “Internet domain names”. It is the abuse of these valuable domain names, however, that has aroused considerable controversy for brand owners over recent years. In particular, the apparently powerful terrestrial brands have proved easy targets as cyberbrands – for those rather unscrupulous individuals seeking to take advantage of considerable brand goodwill by placing them on the Internet, only to ransom to the highest bidder, often the (terrestrially) “legitimate owners”. Brand owners must remain vigilant, and this article analyses the curent situation and offers sensible and practical advice for those seeking safe and cost‐effective brand exposure on the Information SuperHighway.

The marketing of own brands is a feature of modern multiple retailing. Retailers can create brand image by advertising their own products or creating brand equity in their own stores and transferring such imagery to their physical products. The costs of branding to the retailer are approximately an order of magnitude lower than that to the manufacturers of brands sold via those same retailers. Despite their inherent advantage in managing brands, retailers have often chosen to ape the presentation of established brands. Affronted brand owners can sue under British law for “passing off”, but the protection offered appears limited to the idea of protecting the shopper from confusion, rather than the brand owner from unfair competition. Empirical evidence is presented as to how a “lookalike” brand can acquire the image of the established brand, leading to the challenge of a theft of identity. Whether changes to British law and the different legal situation in other countries takes account of this phenomenon is questioned.