11th November 2018 - Lara Alexandra

Trade Mark Protection

 What many don’t know about the world of intellectual property is that it can be a place of sneakiness and power plays. When you have poured blood, sweat and tears into promoting, advertising and building your brand, it makes sense that you should protect it. Trade marks and the legal protection they afford, play a pivotal role in business because your customers make decisions on the “brand” they know, and they trust. A legally protected trade mark can be most your valuable asset, even more valuable to a business than tangible assets.

Registering a trade mark protects your creations and gives you the power to prevent others from operating under your brand name. The use of intellectual property ‘IP’ protection can prove to be very powerful in terms of not only commercial but also personal circumstances, as shown in modern day IP Game of Thrones situations in which public figures use trade marks for power.

Jeffree Star Trade Mark Games

Jeffree Star is an entrepreneur, CEO of Jeffree Star Cosmetics and Internet celebrity with 11 million subscribers to his YouTube channel. The beauty community online is alit with new drama and scandals every other week to entertain the YouTube community. Influencers, or anyone with a brand to protect, should ensure that they are totally on top of their IP game as it can be all too easy to run into trouble later down the track. Star is no stranger to scandals, unsurprisingly, with the followers and influence he has built in his career.

One such scandal is the alleged ‘falling out’ between Star and former friend Manny MUA. MUA is also an influencer with 4.9 million subscribers in the beauty community. Its usual for influencers to use their following to branch out into a thriving business and create merchandise that fans can buy to support their favourite Youtubers. A catchphrase often said by MUA and even featured on his own clothing merch was “So pigmented.” Now, what is interesting, is that although MUA’s famous catchphrase is on his own merch, Star, in fact, was the one who successfully filed for the trade mark for the use of merchandising in August this year (a year after the alleged conclusion of their friendship).

What this means is that Star now has the exclusive rights as the original applicant of the trade mark and therefore has the power to eliminate MUA’s merchandise line, should he choose to. Talk about gaining the upper hand on a frenemy! If only MUA had been pre-emptive with protecting his IP and applied to trade mark his brand before manufacturing merchandise.

Yikes! Whilst what the exact details of their beef is unknown, what can be learned from this situation is to be careful and vigilant with your IP protection – friendships come and go, but you can’t fall out with a trade mark. There is a lot that goes into the building of a brand and the work that goes into increasing that reputation with customers.  That is why it is so important that hard work is protected legally through registering a trade mark! You should file a trade mark through a legal professional or trade mark attorney to ensure your trade mark is filed and protected in the correct classes.

Don’t give away your most valuable asset, your intellectual property!

 Take away points

• Brand identity is fast become one of the most valuable assets for a business
• Registering a trade mark protects your brand and gives you the power to prevent others from using your trade mark
• Influencers, or anyone with a brand to protect, should ensure that they are totally on top of their IP game as it can be all too easy to run into trouble later down the track
• Be careful and vigilant with your IP protection – friendships come and go, but you can’t “fall out” with a registered trade mark!

Lara Alexandra, Legal Assistant and Trade Mark Administrator

We are a team of trade mark attorney and IP specialists based on Gold Coast and Sydney. If you need any assistance with your trade mark, please contact us on 1300 77 66 14.

 

 
Disclaimer. The material in this post represents general information only and should not be taken to be legal advice.