Tuesday, 14 July 2020

From Idea to Trademark Registration - How can you come up with a Brand Name?


Trademark Registration

If you have a new product, you undoubtedly need a new name. However, this statement is not as straightforward as it appears if you want an effective way of coming up with a brilliant brand name for your business. It may be a result of a reactive approach, wherein you wait until the product is almost ready to get launched before working hard on the same; however, the best practice always lies in being proactive. If you start working on the brand name before the product is realized, you will be able to save a lot of time and achieve the best possible outcome. To be specific, you need to involve with your product teams right from the beginning and ensure that all the legal and marketing functions are performed well.
With a new brand, it is always highly advisable to choose multiple potential names, that too, at the beginning of the process itself. The names should be selected based on a few criteria, including what the brand is for, which jurisdictions it needs to operate in, and how the brand name intends to engage the customers. It is a matter of fact that yes – the different parts of a business will most probably have different priorities for a brand name, and managing all the competing desires is a part of the overall process.
After shortlisting the brand names, you need to undertake multiple checks, which are as follows:
1.     You need to perform a Trademark Search, which can either be done in-house or with the help of an Intellectual Property (IP) It is imperative to check whether the names you want are available or not and whether they can be protected in the jurisdictions you are aiming for in your overall strategy.
2.     It is essential to think about all the countries and regions where you wish to use the brand name and also check for meanings in their local languages. In the past, several companies and organizations have made a lot of errors by launching brands with unintended and offensive meanings in other languages.
3.     In some industries like the pharmaceuticals, there may be regulatory constraints corresponding to the way you can name a product, which you must keep in mind.
4.     Without any doubt, there is a dire need to identify all your key markets and then create a filing strategy to protect the brand name.
In some industries, in particular, companies face challenges with brand names, specifically when we talk about name creation. In the fashion industry, for instance, the life span of a brand can be pretty short, and there is indeed no way of knowing how successful a particular brand can become. Consequently, you may require a high volume of brand names while operating in this industry. Another thing to notice in the fashion industry is that the companies need to develop the brands very quickly as they have to launch new ones every season. The same can put a lot of stress on a fashion company as the volume of search required in this process becomes high. Nevertheless, with the help of correct resources and a robust strategy, the companies can achieve success in this aspect as well.
If you can navigate well all the potential difficulties of coming up with a brand name, then it becomes a pretty straightforward process. By pooling ideas from the relevant stakeholders before the launch, you will get a lot of time and options for creating an efficient Trademark Registration strategy. However, there are a few pitfalls as well, which you need to be aware of, especially if you operate in a highly competitive environment. It is imperative not to fall into the registration gap, where you own protection in some jurisdictions and not in others. Hence, it is always worth coordinating all your filing efforts to make sure that you file in all your key jurisdictions at the same time. For doing the same, you need to work with the local agents or hire an external partner who will manage the process on your behalf.
Coming up with a new brand name can, at times, seem to be daunting, specifically; if we consider the fact that the brand is the root of a product’s value. But, with the help of the right approach, the process can always be productive and stress-free.


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Wednesday, 8 July 2020

Glow & Handsome - HUL Seeks Injunction against Emami over Trademark Allegations


trademark infringement

Hindustan Unilever Ltd’s (HUL) recent move to rename and rebrand its widely known skincare products – ‘Fair & Lovely’ to ‘Glow & Lovely’ and ‘Men’s Fair & Lovely’ to ‘Glow & Handsome’ – has now landed in the Bombay High Court.
The FMCG major, HUL, has quite recently moved for an injunction against Emami Ltd’s decision to initiate legal proceedings against it for Trademark Infringement. In its petition filed, HUL had sought that it should receive a legal notice at least seven days before Emami takes legal action. The court has now granted the interim relief to HUL.
According to HUL, Emami’s threats of legal proceedings are completely baseless as HUL applied for the trademark in question well before Emami. However, Emami has now been threatening HUL after launching ‘Glow & Handsome’ name change digitally and announcing the same one week before HUL.
In its petition filed, HUL claimed that it had applied for the Trademark Registration of the names of women’s and men’s skincare products with the Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks, two years ago in September and October, respectively. However, both the trademarks were denied on 26th July 2019.
This year, HUL again decided to rename and rebrand its skincare products for projecting a way more inclusive idea of beauty. The company reapplied for the same names on 17th June and 25th June 2020, respectively. According to HUL, the announcement for the name change was made on 2nd July 2020, and the permission to sell the products under the new name came on 3rd July 2020. In a recent statement delivered, HUL stated that Emami is yet to launch a product under these two names.
After hearing all the preliminary arguments, the court noted that HUL is indeed the prior adopter of the mark as it did file the corresponding Trademark Applications first in September 2018 and then this year on 25th June. The court believes that the statements made by Emami do amount to a threat; however, after hearing both the sides, the court shall soon determine whether they are unlawful or groundless. The court has also directed Emami to give seven days prior written notice to HUL before taking any legal action against it. For view source: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/blog/glow-handsome-hul-seeks-injunction-against-emami-over-trademark-allegations/

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Monday, 6 July 2020

Emami Raises Objections to HUL Rebranding Men's Skincare Range as 'Glow & Handsome'


trademarks and designs

Emami Limited, an Indian conglomerate company headquartered in Kolkata, has quite recently raised objections to industry peer Hindustan Unilever Limited – rebranding its skin products in the men’s range as ‘Glow & Handsome’ – by claiming Trademark Rights over the name. The home-grown FMCG has also hinted at initiating legal proceedings as it has already changed the name of its men’s fairness cream to ‘Emami Glow & Handsome.’
In a recent statement delivered, Emami, the maker of ‘Fair and Handsome’  brand of men’s grooming range,  mentioned that the company is indeed shocked to know about HUL’s decision of renaming its men’s skincare range from ‘Fair & Lovely’ to ‘Glow & Handsome.’ According to Emami, it is, at present, the market leader in the field of men’s fairness cream by having legal ownership of all the trademarks in place.
The Kolkata-based FMCG Company also said that it is only shocked and not surprised to observe HUL’s unfair business practice as HUL has been prevalent time and again to damage Emami’s brand image and reputation in the market. The company further added that it would soon be getting in touch with its legal experts to address this issue and related concerns.
The Indian subsidiary of Unilever PLC (a British-Dutch multinational company), HUL, recently stated that it is now rebranding its widely known skincare brand ‘Fair & Lovely’ as ‘Glow & Lovely’ after giving up on the word ‘Fair’ in the name. It also mentioned that its men’s skincare range would be called ‘Glow & Handsome.’
As per various reports, HUL had approached the Controller General of Patents, Trademarks, and Designs, a while ago, to get the name ‘Glow & Lovely’ registered.
Multiple cosmetic brands have been under the scanner for quite a while now over their products that promote skin fairness for stereotyping racial types. Moreover, the same has been intensified further in the wake of the ongoing ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests in the West.
Quite recently, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the US FMCG and healthcare giant, has also stopped the sales of its skin whitening creams worldwide, including India.
The French personal care company, L’OrĂ©al Group, has mentioned in a recent statement delivered that it shall remove words, like fair, fairness, white, whitening, and so on, from all its range of skincare products.
As of now, HUL has not delivered any comments on the entire matter. For view source: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/blog/twitter-takes-down-image-tweeted-by-president-trump-over-copyright-claim/


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Twitter Takes Down Image Tweeted By President Trump Over Copyright Claim


copyright infringement

The widely known American microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, has quite recently taken down an image shared by the US President Donald Trump from its platform after receiving a complaint of Copyright Infringement from The New York Times (an American newspaper based in the New York City with worldwide readership and influence).
The original tweet by President Trump shared on 30th June 2020, showed a meme with caption – In reality, they are not after me, they are after you, I am just in the way – along with Trump’s image in the background. The background picture was taken by a photographer at The New York Times, to accompany a feature article in September 2015 on then-presidential candidate Trump.
In place of the tweet, Twitter now displays the message that this image has been removed in response to a report from the copyright owner. This step by the well known social media platform, Twitter, is the latest instance of content posted by President Trump, which is, in turn, being removed or flagged, due to what Twitter believes is copyright infringement, violation of its policies, rules, and regulations, on threatening violence, amongst many others. Twitter removed the image shared after it received a complaint from The New York Times concerning the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). As per a notice posted on the Lumen Database, The New York Times owns the rights to the image in question. The database efficiently collects and evaluates the legal requests and complaints corresponding to the removal of online materials.
It was in May this year that Twitter began challenging Trump’s tweets and has clashed with him repeatedly since then. The president, on the other hand, has threatened the platform to change its laws after it labeled one of his tweets as inappropriate and hid a tweet about looting, which according to Twitter, fomented violence.
Due to copyright complaints, social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, also recently disabled a campaign tribute video to George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. For view source: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/blog/twitter-takes-down-image-tweeted-by-president-trump-over-copyright-claim/


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Tuesday, 30 June 2020

No More 'Fair & Lovely' - HUL Seeks Trademark Registration for 'Glow & Lovely'


trademark registration

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) might soon greet all its customers with ‘Glow & Lovely’ from its shelves. The FMCJ major has decided to drop the word ‘Fair’ from its widely known fairness cream ‘Fair & Lovely’ and is now seeking the Trademark Registration for the new name ‘Glow & Lovely.’

Although HUL (the Indian subsidiary (headquartered in Mumbai) of Unilever PLC, which is a British-Dutch multinational company) hasn’t yet disclosed the new name for its ‘Fair & Lovely’ brand; however, the company, on 17th June 2020, did approach the Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks to get the name ‘Glow & Lovely’ registered. As per various recent reports, the company’s Trademark Application, at present, has been sent for Vienna Codification, which helps to classify the figurative elements forming a part of the proposed trademark.

A spokesperson for HUL mentioned in a recent statement that Trademark Protection is a significant aspect for every other brand out there, and considering the same, the company has indeed applied for several trademarks. According to the spokesperson, some of the trademark applications have received the registration while some are pending. The company is looking forward to registering other brand names as well; however, at the same time, it also wants to manage the unveiling of the new brand name carefully. By doing the same, the company wishes to make sure that the market doesn’t become full of counterfeit and unsafe products.

In 2018 as well, HUL had applied for a trademark under the name ‘Glow & Lovely;’ it was, however, rejected.

In the “Goods and Service Description” in its recent trademark application, HUL has specified that the intended use of ‘Glow and Lovely’ will revolve around oils, soaps, lotions, creams, facial masks, beauty packs, to name a few. It will also cover shaving preparations, skincare preparations, pre-shave, and aftershave preparations, depilatory preparations, cologne, and sun tanning and sun protection preparations.

HUL has recently mentioned that it will remove the word ‘Fair’ from its widely known ‘Fair & Lovely’ brand as part of its parent Unilever’s global rebranding exercise. Although the move has come at a time where there are massive voices against racial stereotyping; however, HUL has insisted that its step has nothing do with the ongoing anti-racism movement in West. According to HUL, it has been efficiently working on the global evolution of the Rs 2000-crore brand for many years. The company has also mentioned that its other skincare portfolio shall adopt a holistic vision towards beauty, too, by celebrating all skin colors and caring for everyone.




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Monday, 29 June 2020

ProStar Wins Patent For Method That Prevents Damages While Excavating


intellectual property_ip

ProStar, a Grand Junction-based company specializing in the development of precision mapping solutions, has quite recently received a patent for its computer-implemented method, which avoids damages in an excavation area. To be specific, the company has successfully secured a patent for a method, which helps significantly in preventing damages to the environment and utilities during maintenance, construction, and groundbreaking activities along with the damages caused by severe conditions, such as earthquakes, fires, and weather.
The Chief Executive Officer and President of ProStar, Page Tucker, is the co-inventor of the newly-granted patent. In a recent statement delivered, he said that the company is indeed pleased to add another exclusive patent to its Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio. He further mentioned that ProStar’s mobile and cloud precision mapping solutions are recognized as the world’s most advanced utility mapping solutions, and the issuance of another patent in this scenario proves the fact that the company is leading the industry across the globe in terms of research, development, and innovation.
Raymond Tabandeh, who is a partner with the Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie law firm (specializing in providing an enhanced and expanded range of services in IP, litigation, business transactions, to name a few), prepared and prosecuted ProStar’s newly granted patent. Quite recently, he stated that it is always gratifying to play a crucial role in the issuance of a patent for a client. He further said that the damages to buried utilities during excavation lead to a critical problem in both the United States and Canada, and in every other scenario where excavation is involved – the damage is primarily caused by the lack of availability of qualified data. According to Tabandeh, ProStar’s newly granted patent efficiently addresses all these concerns and issues.
ProStar combines mobile and cloud technologies with patented processes for creating geospatial intelligence software, which helps the government agencies, companies, and organizations in managing underground infrastructure.


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Friday, 19 June 2020

Arcadia Wins Foundational Australian Patent for Herbicide Tolerance in Wheat


Australian Patent

The Australian Patent Office has quite recently granted a foundational patent covering herbicide tolerance in wheat to Arcadia Biosciences Inc., a consumer-driven agricultural technology company, headquartered in Davis, California. The company focuses on the development of traits for enhancing the nutritional value and quality of crops and food ingredients.
In a recent statement delivered, the company has mentioned that the newly granted patent provides Intellectual Property (IP) protection for mutations to the wheat genome that make it herbicide-tolerant. Furthermore, Arcadia has stated that it has also received a US Notice of Allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the same technology.
All these announcements make both the United States and Australia the first major wheat-producing countries across the globe to approve the patents. According to Arcadia, additional Patent Applications are at present pending in several other prime markets worldwide.
The Chief Technology Officer at Arcadia Biosciences, Randy Shultz, has said that this patented technology shall serve as the foundation for innovations and inventions in herbicide tolerance in wheat in the coming future. He has further mentioned that with the help of additional research, this patented technology can even develop an exceedingly efficient hybrid wheat production system, which shall transform the entire wheat industry.
Currently, Arcadia is seeking potential licensing partners for its herbicide-tolerant wheat technology.
The Chief Commercial Officer at Arcadia, Sarah Reiter, has stated that this patented technology can indeed prove to an essential tool in the hybrid breeding toolkit for the right wheat innovators and inventors out there.
The USPTO has granted four patents to Arcadia earlier this year. Two of those patents correspond to extending the shelf life of whole wheat by reducing the oxidative and hydrolytic rancidity. Besides, the company has also received notices of allowance for two other patents that extend the earlier mentioned claims corresponding to the extended shelf life of wheat and reduced gluten grains. For view source: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/blog/digimedia-tech-llc-sues-nikon-alleging-patent-infringement/


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