School of Legal Studies

Internal Assignment 1

Brand Management

Submitted by: -
Name: Shashank S Katagar
SRN: R20BL031
Class: BBA LLB 6thSem
 School of Legal Studies

Internal Assignment 1

Brand Management

Submitted by: -
Name: Shashank S Katagar
SRN: R20BL031
Class: BBA LLB 6thSem
Topic: Brand & Its Legal Protection
 Branding and Its Legal Protection

Introduction
A brand can be defined as a set of tangible and intangible attributes designed to create awareness
and identity, and to build the reputation of a product, service, person, place, or organization. The
holistic perspective of branding as a long-term strategy includes a wide set of activities ranging
from product innovation to marketing communications. Brand can also be defined as “A brand is
a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as
distinct from those of other sellers”.

You can consider a brand as the idea or image people have in mind when thinking about specific
products, services, and activities of a company, both in a practical (e.g. “the shoe is light-weight”)
and emotional way (e.g. “the shoe makes me feel powerful”). It is therefore not just the physical
features that create a brand but also the feelings that consumers develop towards the company or
its product. This combination of physical and emotional cues is triggered when exposed to the
name, the logo, the visual identity, or even the message communicated.

There is another concept along with the brand and is equally important to make your brand known
globally which is known as “branding”.

Branding is the process of creating a strong, positive perception of a company, its products or
services in the customer’s mind by combining such elements as logo, design, mission statement,
and a consistent theme throughout all marketing communications. Effective branding helps
companies differentiate themselves from their competitors and build a loyal customer base.

Legal Protection of a Brand

Brand protection is the process of protecting the intellectual property (IP) of companies and their
associated brands against counterfeiters, copyright pirates, and infringers of other types of IP, such
as patents, design rights, color mark and trade dress.
This is done not only to protect the loss of revenue from a company but also to protect a company’s
image, reputation and overall value. Fundamentally, brand protection prevents brand abuse.

Brand abuse is an umbrella term that refers generally to an outside party infringing on a brand’s
intellectual property in order to take advantage of its well-respected reputation. Brand abuse can
come in many forms, including, but not limited to Counterfeiting, Rogue websites, Copyright
piracy, Trademark squatting, Patent theft, social media impersonation and many more.

Companies need to remain vigilant against any type of brand abuse of which they may become a
target. However, the most pervasive and troublesome for brands is counterfeiting.

Types of Brand Infringement

1. Counterfeiting: Counterfeiting should need little introduction. It is the manufacturing or

distribution of goods under your brand name or IP rights, without your permission. Yet
there are subtle differences within the counterfeit trade that are important to define. Many
counterfeiters produce knock-offs (non-identical imitation goods that do not feature
branding or trademarks), for example, which are often very low quality and do not meet
the criteria of what you might consider being a ‘true’ counterfeit. True counterfeits, on the
other hand, tend to be made at scale by criminal organizations. These criminal
organizations often have access to materials that make their imitations very hard to
differentiate from the genuine thing. They also tend to have wide distribution networks.
For example: Producing shoes under the name of Reedok, Pooma etc.
2. Copyright infringement: A copyright is the legal protection granted to creators of artistic,
literary and scientific works. Companies need to be protective of their copyright and have
a strong brand protection strategy, even if they’re not creating art, books or scientific
reports. Counterfeiters will copy a product’s authentic photographs and use them to
promote and legitimize their own illegal product listings online.
3. Trademark infringement: Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of your
trademark on goods and services. Trademarks are a badge of origin and anything that can
be used to differentiate your products or services from others often falls within this.
Trademarks usually take the form of words, logos, patterns, and shapes associated with
your brand. Ex: A shoe company selling its product having logo of Nike (Tick mark).
 4. Patent theft: Patents are legal protections given to inventive products which provide an
innovative solution to a problem. Inventors who have created a new product are entitled to
patent protection, as it forbids outside parties from using their designs, and outside parties
infringing on patents will profit from the time and money invested into designing the
invention.

How to Protect your Brand?

The unauthorized use of the brand on the Internet is one of the biggest problems in today's reality.
Because of this, the products from different companies may be sold under the same brand name.
In this case, the copyright holder may lose its reputation due to the fact that another organization
sold a low-quality product under its trademark. This may require removing the negative stuff about
the company. It is better to avoid such problems, because then it will be very difficult to cope with
them. Some of the ways to protect your brand are:

1. Intellectual Property Portfolio: First, if you don't already have in house expert, you need
to get some good IP portfolio manager which will help you to effectively manage and
secure your IP portfolio. This could include conducting clearance surveys to select new
brands or handling trademark and design registration to protect your brand in all major
markets. In short: you will need to manage your intellectual property ensuring it is fully
protected against potential local objections to maximize its potential monetary value. IP
Portfolio Manager shall be responsible to check the compliance of various laws relating to
a brand like the Trademark Act, 1999, Copyright Act 1957 and Patent Act, 1970.
2. Brand Monitoring: Brand monitoring is the process of tracking different channels to
identify where your brand is mentioned. Knowing where and how people are talking about
your brand will help you better understand how people perceive it, and lets you collect
valuable feedback from your audience. You can also keep an eye on potential crises and
respond to questions or criticism before they get out of control.
3. Understand commercial licensing for your brand assets: There are different types of
licenses, but for our purposes, we generally break them down into two main categories:
 Personal Use – This means that you can download the item and use it in your personal
projects however you want. You can make yourself a piece of wall art, design a family
 newsletter, etc. Personal Use licenses are for projects where you will not be using the work
in a project for personal gain.
 Commercial Use – Commercial Use licenses exist for businesses who intend to use the
work in projects that are related to commerce. Think advertisements, promotional
materials, on merchandise, etc. The business obviously stands to gain from the use of the
work, so a commercial license is often something they must purchase from the original
creator.

It’s a common misconception that you should own “exclusive copyright” to all your brand
assets. A copyright is always attributed to the original creator, aka the only person who has
the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute their work. Licensing is
where the original creator of a work gives a framework that details how and when you can
use the work. Therefore, as mentioned above the IP Portfolio Manager shall also look into
the licensing aspect of the brand and all other contractual obligation.

4. Fighting rogue websites - Rogue websites are websites that are set up for malicious or
criminal purposes. They come in a number of variations, all of which are potentially
damaging to brands. You can protect your brand by registering brand-relevant domain
names and removing harmful websites.

There are some tools which assist in the legal protection of a brand like:

1. Logo Detection : Allowing you to discover infringements where logos have been obscured
or distorted to avoid enforcement.
2. Network Analysis: Enabling you to automatically connect infringements across channels
such as social media, marketplaces, and websites and uncover coordinated networks of
infringing activity.
Conclusion

In conclusion, brand protection is crucial for any company that wants to establish a unique identity
in the market and gain customer trust and loyalty. Legal protection of a brand is essential to prevent
others from using or copying the brand name, logo or other identifying marks without permission.
Trademark registration and other legal protections can help companies defend their brand against
infringement and counterfeiting, which can harm their reputation and bottom line. However, it is
important to note that legal protection alone is not enough to build a strong brand. Companies
should also invest in creating a compelling brand identity and delivering high-quality products or
services that meet customer needs and expectations.

Bibliography

Book

1. Jean-Noël Kapferer (2012), “The New Strategic Brand Management – Advanced Insights
& Strategic Thinking”
2. Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller “Marketing Management”, 15 th Edition

Websites

1. http://www.managementstudyguide.com/
2. https://www.bizcommunity.com/
3. https://www.fuzebranding.com/