RioBrand's Industry Diary

London: 7 August 2001

• Rulers take an interest in trade marks
• Bass hits a new note
• No go for WIPO logo
• Ecclestone in the pits
• Claws out over cat name
• Marlboro unsaddled
• DIY trade mark creation
• Cash in on trade marks
• Sex.com appeal
• And finally

Rulers take an interest in trade marks

Dictators have suddenly developed a fascination with brands. Saddam Hussein has announced that Iraqi versions of 15 leading pharmaceuticals will be launched in August. They include a local copy of Viagra to be marketed under the name Samagra.

Meanwhile, Fidel Castro has claimed that Cuba is already producing patented AIDS medicines without licenses. He has also kept a close watch on the complex dispute involving the Havana Club brand and has threatened to launch his own version of Bacardi, a brand owned by a Cuban exile now operating out of Bermuda.

However pressure has eased following the 5 July decision of the World Trade Organisation which rejected the European Union's challenge on the legitimacy of the 1998 US law prohibiting registration of confiscated Cuban trade marks. This law had prevented French company Pernod-Ricard from registering the Havana Club mark in the US and the WTO panel upheld the right of the US authorities to refuse registration of the mark because it had originally been confiscated by the Cuban government following the 1959 revolution. Confused? You are not alone!

Bass hits a new note

Bass, the hotels to bars group, has adopted a new name. Following the sale of its brewing business to Interbrew it will now be known as '6 Continents', a name suggested by two employees in an in-house competition.

Contrary to reports in the popular press, the famous red triangle logo -the first trade mark to be registered in the UK when the Trade Marks Registry opened in 1876- will continue to be used by Interbrew and the promotional spend on the brand may actually increase.

No go for WIPO logo

The competition organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in an attempt to find itself a new logo has ended without success. None of the entries, submitted by graphic designers from 58 different countries, was considered suitable to replace the existing mark which is already 30 years old.

However, the jury did decide to award three runner-up prizes of Swiss Francs 10,000 each to candidates from Australia, Denmark and Switzerland in recognition of the aesthetic merits of their proposals. WIPO's member states will be officially informed of the result at meeting due to take place in September and will then decide what further action will be taken to find a replacement logo.

Ecclestone in the pits

Last year the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) found against Bernie Ecclestone in his complaint against the webname Formula1.com. Refusing to accept defeat in his battle to acquire the rights to the valuable webname Ecclestone sued for trade mark infringement before the San Francisco district court. In a further escalation of the dispute the website operator retaliated by bringing an anti-trust lawsuit.

Now the US courts have refused Ecclestone's application to dismiss the antitrust action, so the dispute now looks set to head to court as the Grand Prix mogul remains determined to acquire the name and the operator of the successful website remains equally committed to proving good faith by demonstrating that there are many businesses which are unrelated to Ecclestone yet use Formula 1 or its abbreviation F1.

The website is also running a campaign directed against Ecclestone, with initiatives ranging from distributing T-shirts demanding 'hands off formula1.com' to encouraging visitors to lobby the European Union or suggesting supporters write directly to Ecclestone. Meanwhile Ecclestone's own plans for an internet presence remain stalled on the starting grid.

Claws out over cat name

Readers of this Diary will be well aware that care needs to be taken over choosing a name for a new product but few would imagine that selecting a pet name could lead to an international political row. However it seems that President Bush's decision to call his cat 'India' (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/index.html) has caused an upset, although it is not the American natives but those from the Asian sub-continent who are after his scalp.

The White House website does not inform us of the reason for this unusual choice of pet name. However The Hindustan Times suggests that it may be short for 'Indian Ink' because of the animal's black fur and goes on to speculate that Pakistan may fret about the President cosying up with 'something, anything dubbed India' before attempting to defuse the row by wondering if the US media would get so excited if the Indian Prime Minister decided to call his pet 'Bush'.

As always, we like to investigate and bring you the complete story behind the names in the news. We have discovered that in February last year Dubya informed an audience at one of his election rallies in Virginia that his favourite cat called 'Cowboy' had just died, suggesting that the current controversial pet name results from the President's love of the Wild West.

Marlboro unsaddled

It would be a nightmare for any brand owner: the licensee of your leading trade mark is taken over by your main international rival. That was the scenario faced by US tobacco giant Philip Morris in 1999 when Rothmans, holder of a 65% stake in the UK licensee of Philip Morris' top global brand Marlboro, was taken over by BAT (British American Tobacco).

Ever since the takeover the two companies have argued over the licence but now the Court of Appeal has decided that Philip Morris is entitled to terminate the agreement.

DIY trade mark creation

Sir Bob Geldof has named his new media and events company Ten Alps Broadcasting. So where did the name come from? According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, shortly after he had sold his Planet 24 business he created this company and surprise, surprise: read Planet backwards and you get Ten Alp.

We are now wondering if he has used the same technique before. Examining the name of the group that made his name we find that Rats spelt backwards gives us Star -although we are still struggling to decode the word Boomtown….

Cash in on trade marks

The Bank of Canada has applied to register the designs of its banknotes as trade marks. Can this be taken as evidence that the laws against counterfeiting of trade marks have now become so strong that the bank considers such protection worthwhile as a rival the traditional protection against copying of such items?

Sex.com appeal

The saga surrounding the domain name 'sex.com' rumbles on. Gary Kremen who successfully regained what is arguably the most valuable site name on the Internet, has now put up a bounty of US $50,000 in an attempt to bring the matter to a conclusion. The reward will be payable to anyone who arranges for the delivery into US custody of Stephen Cohen, who was held by the San Francisco district court to have misappropriated the name and ordered to pay Kremen damages of US $65 million.

However Kremen claims that he has yet to be paid and rumours suggest that during the time Cohen operated a site under the disputed domain name he managed to salt away millions of dollars of profits in bank accounts in offshore tax havens such as Bermuda and Liechtenstein.

…and finally

An Italian company called CIPA S.r.l. has applied to register the word 'CIPA' as a Community Trade Mark application in respect of kneading machines and other bread-making installations.

We shall have to wait until the opposition period expires on 7 August to find out if the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (commonly known as known as CIPA) decide to oppose, on the basis that their members have prior rights for the use of the mark in relation to making loads of dough….

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