T r a i l b l a z e r

He's got the whole world in his brand

When I was young and carefree I did a bit of adventuring to far-flung corners of the globe. I remember being on a horse trek a week from anywhere in deepest, darkest outer Mongolia and stumbling across a 'shop' selling only four products: yak meat, vodka, potatoes and, lo and behold, cans of Coca-Cola.

The rise of the internet means that it isn't just the mega-corporations who are leaving no stone unturned in seeking out new markets. But with all this globalisation, it's a tough task working out which brands and products are in action where.

Enter RioBrand (www.riobrand.com), a searchable database where brands can 'deposit' all the identifying marks that they consider constitute their image - anything from the shape of a coke bottle to the pastel pink colours of lastminute.com and even Homer Simpson's signature "doh" vocal - as well as the countries or regions where the particular mark is used.

The company is the idea of Thomas Golsong, who is something of a global brand management guru. He was the corporate identity manager behind BP Amoco's snazzy image overhaul last year. "Before RioBrand, nothing like a global source of information relating to brands existed," pronounces Golsong, who is chief executive of the company. "RioBrand enables users to find out who is using what where."

The company is targeting three sectors within brand management: brand owners, so they can make their brand visible and "drive a stake in the ground" to help prevent ownership infringement; brand consultancies; and the legal and para-legal profession, to create an open, centralised, free resource of brand information.

RioBrand has signed twenty companies so far, including Amazon.co.uk, BP Amoco and Unilever. Prices range from £250 to register one brand feature for one year in two global regions to £950 to cover the whole world, although there are discount packages for multiple brands. The average fee is £350 to £450.

Until now, companies wishing to register trademark information, and those wishing to research a brand's features, have had to go through a trademark registry - there are more than 200 registries worldwide.

"Businesses and brands cross borders, trademarks do not," says Golsong. "Trademark registries are limited as they have to follow very national and country-specific rules and laws and they also haven't moved with new media as fast as they might have."

The result, explains Golsong, is a fragmented, unco-ordinated system that is expensive - £250 to £750 in the UK alone - and time-consuming for all concerned. And companies are only able to register black and white logos and names.

"Nobody benefits from the registries being so fragmented. It takes between six months and four years to appear on all the main registries, and only a few companies can afford the time and effort to register across the globe," he says. RioBrand is not aiming to usurp the registry system - brands still need to use them to gain legal trademark protection - but Golsong wants to create an efficient pool of centralised information.

"We want companies to use this as a quick and meaningful search tool," he says. "We come in at the due diligence level, providing visibility for companies and showing in which countries they have a presence, and providing an element of copyright protection."

The company is aiming for profitability by 2003, but Golsong hopes that if it can reach critical mass - 60,000 to 100,000 brands - it might develop a legal standing in its own right.

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