Archive for October, 2008
« Older Entries |Reckless Fan Sites Reined In
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
According to a recent story, Canadian rock musician Bryan Adams, is trying to control use of his image and name on unofficial websites, such as bryanadamsfanclub.nl , bryanadams.nu and badfan.com. Apparently, Adams is using Web Sheriff, an internet-policing company that helps celebrities and others to enforce their rights against infringment of their copyright and trademarks. In addition to having unauthorized material on the websites, some of them apparently also linked to BitTorrent sites and “pirated material”. The offending sites are temporarily unavailable while Web Sheriff helps the parties work out the details. The story indicates that rather than legal action, Web Sheriff is helping enforce rights by developing guidelines for such sites and artists and by offering links to endorsed images and downloads. We didn’t view the sites before they were taken down but we imagine that once they are back up, they may include images and material that are closer to an official Adams website, such as bryanadams.com.
Posted in Branding, Protection & Enforcement | No Comments »
Bank Brands Going Bust?
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
A few weeks ago, we reported on the results of Interbrand’s 2008 Best Global Brands Survey, observing that the survey’s big losers, year-over-year, were financial services companies.
Of course, conditions in that industry have deteriorated significantly since then, so it is no surprise to see that Wachovia Corp. announced a $23.9 billion-dollar quarterly loss earlier today – the largest ever for a bank. And it also comes as no surprise to see that a write-down tied to a loss of goodwill made up a significant part of that loss.
What is notable, however, is the sheer size of that goodwill write-down: set at approximately $18.8 billion dollars, the write-down is more than three times that total value attributed to the Royal Bank of Canada when it was awarded the title of Canada’s most valuable brand in a 2007 Brand Finance study.
Posted in Branding | No Comments »
Intersection of Vancouver 2010 Olympic Trademarks and the Arts
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
According to a recent story, the Vancouver Organizing Committe for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games (VANOC) in conjunction with the Artists’ Legal Outreach is conducting a workshop regarding the potential impact of the Olympic and Paralymic Marks Act (the “Act”) on artists’ works that may be critical of the 2010 Olympic Games. Entitled “Running Rings Around Trade-marks The Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act: Issues for Artists“, the workshop is intended to open a dialogue between artists and VANOC.
The dialogue may be necessary, given that artists are worried that any works that they create that include Olympic trade-marks or expressions may cause them to run afoul of the Act. VANOC of course is interested in maintaining the value of the marks and protecting the interests of sponsors with whom it has entered into lucrative deals.
It will be interesting to see the results of the workshop. Some insight into VANOC’s approach may be gained by examining VANOC’s guidelines for not-for-profits to assess permissible use. According to the guidelines, the considerations for acceptable use include: accurate use, relevant use, commercially neutral use, undue prominence, use of Olympic/Paralympic visuals, and unauthorized asssociation. These considerations are rated on a score: 6-8 unlikely to infringe; 9-13 potential infringement that require “enforcement assessment”; 14-18 likely to infringe. Artists will likely be appreciative of further guidance on the subject – the above guidelines are quite subjective. Obviously, it is beneficial for both sides to open this dialogue.
Posted in Branding | No Comments »