Importance of brand for online retailers

The digital marketplace offers many advantages for businesses: it can be a useful tool for promoting your products or services and is a great way to connect with prospective customers and leverage the image of your business. However, it’s also a prime platform for copycats and scammers to take advantage of your brand. In the e-commerce context, a brand communicates the product range, quality, price, trust and customer service, allowing you to distinguish from competitors, both domestic and foreign. As a result, a brand can be viewed as one of the most important assets, deserving an adequate level of protection in the form of trademark registration.

Due to an abundance of counterfeit products, it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve a brand-controlled shopping experience. Luxury brands tend to be wary of selling their goods through online marketplaces such as Amazon for a simple reason: the neglectful attitude of the platform towards third-party sellers' misuse of brand trademarks. However, in its decision dated 22 December 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) cleared the way for Amazon's liability for trademark infringement.

The global cryptocurrency market was valued at 1.49 billion dollars in 2020 and is projected to reach 4.94 billion dollars by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.8 % from 2021 to 2030, according to the Cryptocurrency Market Outlook. Blockchain technology offers decentralised, fast, transparent, and reliable ways to conduct financial transactions, which makes it easier for companies to deliver high-quality services to consumers. As the market grows, more companies are seeking legal protection for their digital currencies, which prompts new infringement cases. Most recently, Block Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Bitcoin.com for misuse of its trademark VERSE.

By definition, a trademark needs to display sufficient distinctiveness to identify the origin and ownership of the products and services. That means generic and descriptive words should be avoided at all costs. The landmark case in United States PTO v. Booking.com B.V, however, proves that a generic term combined with “.com” or another top-level domain can be registered as a trademark if there is sufficient evidence of consumer recognition.

“A lot of businesses focus on the product: what's good about the product, what makes the product so different, the unique selling proposition. You hear these phrases all the time. Take On Goliath looks at things a little differently. We go far enough back to see what's needed to support the consumer, the retailer, the wholesaler, and then the brand itself.” Read the full story of Dave Christie, the founder of Take on Goliath, another inspiring brand protected by Trama that helps SME businesses be seen and heard more.

Imagine a consumer searching online for your brand name—but instead of seeing your website they’re greeted by ads from someone else. This is how brands become victims of trademark bidding. A registered trademark grants its owner an exclusive right to use the given keyword among search terms as well as product/service description, effectively discouraging any competitive tactics that seek to derive value from the good reputation of a given brand.

Intellectual property of a brand does not end with its name or logo, but can also cover domain name. If you want to reinforce your brand name and ensure visibility of your business online, you should consider trademarking your domain name.

With this special offer meant for Amazon new sellers, Amazon aims to bring new seller incentives with accelerated performance beyond launch and an improved level of protection for new businesses. 

$40 billion estimated market value and 1,000+ fold increase in the number of trademark applications. Those are some of the breathtaking facts about non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that have captured substantial attention from the public, regulators, established brands and last but not least, IP specialists. This article presents a trademark perspective on NFTs, exploring this novel phenomenon and emerging issues.

The story of Karolis Dieliautas, the founder of Comfier Sleep, reveals that environmental sustainability and exceptional quality of a product can in fact go hand in hand, resulting in a brand loved by the customers and definitely worth protecting.