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Bezant, Mark --- "The Impact of Permitted Use on Trade Mark Valuation" [2006] ELECD 243; in Phillips, Jeremy (ed), "Trade Marks at the Limit" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Trade Marks at the Limit

Editor(s): Phillips, Jeremy

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845427382

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: The Impact of Permitted Use on Trade Mark Valuation

Author(s): Bezant, Mark

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

15. The impact of permitted use on trade
mark valuation
Mark Bezant

WORKING WITH KIDS AND ANIMALS
One afternoon when I was puzzling over this topic, my youngest son Edward
wandered into my study. `Dad', he asked, `Why is it that people sponsor differ-
ent breakfast cereals?' Thrown by the question, I ducked behind one of my
own. `Why do you think it is?' I asked. `Because that's just the way it is', he
replied instantly. Outclassed, inevitably, by an eight year old, I asked him
which were his favourite cereals. He obligingly reeled off a long list of names:
`Cinnamon Grahams'; `Golden Nuggets'; `Honey Nut Cheerios'; `Cookie
Crisp'; `Chocolate Weetabix'; `Ricicles'.
I was struck by several things: the common use of compound trade marks,
trade marks that had descriptive prefixes, branding based on attributes such
as flavours and product names containing common or everyday terms.
Curiosity aroused, I pushed on with the conversation. It turned out he'd heard
of companies like Nestlé (`they make food') and Kellogg's (`they make
breakfast cereals'). But in his mind the `sponsors' were someone else: the
characters and images on the packets such as monkeys, a wolf, a prospector
and `a man wearing glasses' (it turned out he was `a scientist').The use of
trade marks and branding to promote breakfast cereals is clearly complex and
illustrates the situation more broadly. Brands are stretched (new flavours;
new product sizes), repositioned or relaunched (health-oriented; concentra-
tion-enhancing for children), and promoted ...