360° Brand Protection | Vigilance Online and Offline

Working With you To Create, Build and master the Protection of Household Name Brands

Brands are how clients and customers recognise you.

Whether it is a logo, or the name of your company, products or services – brands are signs which alert the buying public that what you're selling originates from you and no one else.

Brands act as a "seal of quality" and origin that are empowered by goodwill your business has built up over the course of its operation.

Example: Nike

Consider a pair of Nike trainers placed alongside an identical pair except the identical pair does not display any branding elements or name. No “Nike”, no “swoosh”. For most consumers, at the same (or even a discounted) price point – the branded trainers are more attractive.

This is because Nike’s branding adds value to the consumer, including but not limited to:

1. A promise of quality
2. Association with culture surrounding that product (e.g. association by many of the world’s best athletes)
3. Expression of these qualities to others

This value is absolutely crucial to Nike, in fact, in 2019 Nike’s brand alone was valued at $32.4 billion. It is the same for all companies who become known for their products and services and using branding to differentiate themselves from competitors. Especially when others will use marks or signs used by these companies to redirect trade or take advantage by using signs illegitimately.

Protecting your name

Simply put, brands need to be protected, not only to stop infringement, copycats and counterfeits – but also in order to secure brands in a way where they can be licensed, franchised and primed for business growth. This is something that can only be achieved effectively by lawyers, and brand protection lawyers who are well versed in the 360-degree maintenance of brands. 

Brands are protected by registered rights in the form of trade marks and can attract protection through unregistered rights under the tort of passing off.

As a business grows it is vital that they have a proactive brand protection strategy in place in order to secure and grow the value of these assets in line with its business. Virtuoso Legal’s team has a storied history of partnering with international businesses to secure and develop their brands.

More than just trade marks

Whilst trade marks are the lynchpin of world-class brand portfolios in today's technology-driven world, brand protection has to go above and beyond the registration and enforcement of trade marks or a business name. Brand protection today needs to be comprehensive and constantly evolving, including:

• registering domains, monitoring and taking down potentially damaging ones
• capture and monitoring of social media platform identities, and keeping up with new platforms that gain popularity
• reviewing and issuing takedown requests for unauthorised listings on online marketplaces e.g. Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Shopify and Etsy
• emergent technology such as blockchain

Amongst many others.

True vigilance requires not only a comprehensive and evolving view of the digital world for infringement but the teeth to act proactively to address risks before they become problems that affect a business' bottom line.

Virtuoso Legal's team of lawyers have brought together a host of world-leading solutions in a single package; which, combined with their experience and expertise provides our clients with elite brand protection. Scroll below to read more about the individual areas of brand protection service in more detail.

Our experts in this area

• Go to Case Studies
• Go to Insight and Opinion
• Go to FAQs
• Go to News and Results