Protecting Your Brand Name on the Internet
Twenty-four hundred years ago, in the scroll age, the marketing guru Socrates observed, “Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of.” In the intervening years, only the technology of communication has changed; the wisdom of protecting your brand name and the goodwill it carries is still valid. For many of today’s businesses that are built on innovative products or services, such as those provided by many of the readers of The Genomics Law Report, the Internet and its social media are the most important methods of communicating with potential customers and collaborators.
Brand protection on the Internet begins with selecting and registering a “domain name.” Domain names are akin to virtual street addresses on the Internet, where the registry or “top level domain” is the name of the street and the string to the left of the “.” in the domain name is the ‘second level domain name.” Thus, “genomicslawreport.com” is the unique address for our site, consisting of the second level domain “genomicslawreport” registered on the popular “com” street. Anyone in the world can find us and no one else publishing there. We have grown jaded about this technological marvel, but a consequence of the domain name system is that every business should want to be sure that it preemptively registers domain names that support its brand and take reasonable and prudent measures to assure that others do not unfairly profit from the goodwill residing in that brand by registering domain names that impersonate, mimic or denigrate the brand or that sell counterfeit products under the brand name.
Protecting the Name
A great invention deserves a great name. When the time comes to market your game-changer, you can be sure of two marketing realities: copiers will race to build similar products, and purchasers will reward the product they remember. These two truths lie behind the adoption of the trademark iPhone® to identify Apple Inc.’s unique combination of music player and smart telephone and to distinguish it from other, similar products that now are marketed by Palm, RIM and other competitors. Because consumers know to ask for an iPhone® device by name, iPhone symbolizes and sustains the considerable goodwill that attaches to this category-creating product. The inner electronics of the device have changed repeatedly since it was first introduced, but consumers still associate today’s product with the original and its goodwill because of the consistent use of this trademark.
Genomic-Related Trademark Filings Down in 2009
Applications to register genomic-related trademarks are down by one third on an annualized basis compared to 2008. The Genomics Law Report has found that since 2004, filings of application with the US PTO to register trademarks for goods and services related to genomics grew at an irregular but generally upwards rate, with 2007 showing the largest year-on-year increase and 2008 showing a slower but still rising number of filings. In the first half of 2009, the bottom fell out.
Academic researchers have begun to identify trademark filings as an important, if overlooked, indicator of innovation and industrial change (pdf). More casual observers have noted a correlation between overall economic activity and the number of trademark filings, with a decline in the overall number of filings at the US PTO seeming to lag somewhat behind the decline in the nation’s economic output. Given the recent economic downturn, it is therefore not surprising that overall filings of trademark applications at the US PTO are down as well in 2009. However, the seemingly steeper decline in the number of genomic-related filings in 2009 may indicate that, despite headline grabbing innovations and company launches such as last week’s launch of Pathway Genomics, overall commercial activity in genomics may be struggling, at least in the US.
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