Intellectual Property plays a very important role in the protection of a brand, but this process starts a long time after the brand is created, and the process of creating the brand comes after the creation of the product.
The creation of a product involves a number of people specialized in that particular field, for example scientists are involved in the creation of a drug and fashion designers in the case of clothing. The creation time varies depending on the type of product. Once this stage has been completed, other specialists are responsible for creating the products brand. This stage is more conditioned because in business time is money, and having the product and not being able to present it with its brand can have negative effects, as there are times and opportunities for marketing a product, and not doing it at the right time can lead to economic losses.
The marketing specialists hold the products success in their hands, because the product can be very good but without an efficient commercialization, it will not make it in the market. Generally, these specialists like to create more suggestive brands that sell consumers the idea of the product they are acquiring, and these brands are usually easy to remember. However, when it comes to protecting the trademark, the Office of Trademark Registration may deny a request for a very evocative trademark, (it does not mean that evocative trademarks cannot be registered), as they often lack enough distinctive aptitude and can be confused with the product and the trademark will not be protected.
This is why there must be a very intimate relationship between the marketing specialist and the lawyer who protects the brands. Generally, intellectual property lawyers are quite rigorous when questioning a brand, especially since experience has taught us that very evocative marks usually aren’t protected by the Trademark Registration Offices. At the same time, we must be flexible, since the investment that has been made for the brands creation cannot simply be thrown away. Lawyers can suggest a phrase that complements the brand created in order for it to be protected, accepted and registered. We can also suggest the insertion of more striking elements that cause the trademark analyst to divert their attention and give a positive resolution, therefore granting the registration of the trademark.
This will depend on the duration of the product in the market, meaning the time the company has set to keep that product in the market. When it comes to products that are not meant to be kept in the market on a permanent basis, the brand creators usually look for brands that are more suggestive, simpler and thus consumers remember them easily.
And why, if this suggestive, simple brand, is very successful in the market, do they use it for a product that will have a short durability in the market? Because being a simple and easily remembered brand, the competition will also create very similar brands, competitors will see the success of a product by the way it is marketed and will create similar strategies to achieve the same success. This leads to the brands dilution as the first brand loses that ability to differentiate and identify products. It is for this reason, that these types of brands are created for products that will only be in the market for a certain amount of time.
It is different for products that a company wants to bring to the market and promote as its flagship product, that is to say that it lasts over time and becomes an icon in the industry. Here the creation of the brand is more complicated, because a descriptive or very suggestive mark will not suit them for the reasons mentioned above.
A very pompous brand cannot be very effective either because it can fall into oblivion, either because is very difficult to pronounce or it does not evoke any idea about the product to the consumer. This brand may be 100% registrable, but it will not be 100% effective in the market. This is where the marketing specialist and the Trademark Attorney must act together, given that there must be a perfect harmony for the brand to be capable of transmitting the benefits and characteristics of the product to the consumer and also make it registrable.
The symbiosis that must exist between the brands and their commercialization is the key to the success of a product in the market, because the combination of the expertise that both marketing specialists and lawyers bring brands leads to more successful and longer lasting products.