The trademark protection of country brands: insights from New Zealand (original) (raw)

Trademarks in branding: Legal issues and commercial practices

Business History, 2018

The call for a special symposium on ‘The Brand and Its History’ has led to two journal issues that focus on trademarks and brands, respectively. This issue is devoted to trademarks, the more concrete, well-documented, and measurable aspect of brands. This editorial introduces trademark studies; summarises previous contributions from economic, legal, business, and historical literature; provides a short overview of the topics and findings of the seven articles included in this issue; and reflects on further research.

Trade marks, country names and misappropriation of national identity

Country names function like biometric data that help consumers identify not only the authenticity of the source of goods and services in the global market place, but also their perceived reputation for quality. The practice of co-branding with country names to heighten the distinctiveness of local brands, as well as their adoption as marks for unconnected goods and services has left consumers confused and countries disgruntled.  Historically, an unfair competition prevention approach has been adopted vis-a-vis international IP protection of official country names. This article considers the extent to which broader issues of sovereignty and nation branding have not been given due credence in the debate on the legitimate use of country names in trade.  It is argued that there has been a paradigm shift in the significance of country names in international commerce, which has prompted discussion of the need for increased IP protection to embrace nation brands as a unique genus of property, rather than mere descriptors of origin or indications of quality.

Geographical indications as a brand strategy: A literal review

International Journal of Research in Marketing Management and Sales, 2024

Geographical indications (GIs) are intellectual property rights that identify a product's geographical origin and ensure product quality and brand development for indigenous products. They help indigenous producers build brand value, boost livelihoods, and attract consumers who value regional product characteristics. GIs can drive price premiums and create price-premium transmission dynamics between markets by representing manufacturers' common reputation. Indigenous producers can identify with geographical indications for a unique identity, protection against unfair competition, sustainable practices, cultural heritage preservation, and rural economic growth. Geographical indications as a brand strategy improve product identification, production standards, reputation, quality, production, and regional reputation. They benefit from agrotourism, cultural heritage preservation, international trade negotiations, fair trade, and indigenous producers' interests. This study aimed to explore the role of geographical indications as a brand strategy for indigenous producers and concludes that the future of geographical indications for branding is bright, as countries and regions use them to mark and unleash the potential of the region's reputation by protecting indigenous products.

Country Branding: Conceptualization and Review

2009

Although several aspects of brands which may affect consumer purchasing behavior have been studied during the last decades, the concept of country branding and its particularities in comparison to classical product branding have not received the appropriate attention yet. In a comparative and analytical manner, this paper tries to review the concept of country branding, its origins and various interpretations, and the existent methods internationally used in order to assess country brands.

Trademarks and Territory: Detaching Trademark Law from the Nation-State

Houston Law Review, 2004

But trademark law is not unique in its territorial character and might have assumed this character absent international conventions. Much law is territorial. This is true for many reasons, reasons that have consumed international lawyers and legal theorists for centuries. Historically, the principal divide was between laws that attached to the person, wherever that person traveled, and laws that regulated according to the place where a relevant legal event occurred. Scholars of private international law have for many years offered a variety of theories advocating one approach over the other and over time have developed rules that allocate some legal questions to the law of the person and others to the law of the place. 8 Trademark law is firmly in the latter category. The attractions of territoriality are clear. Law is contextual, and geography is an important part of context. 9 Territorial regulation of conduct comports in some sense with intuitive notions of appropriate prescriptive authority, embodied in the aphorism "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." And territorial regulation might also be supported for practical or pragmatic reasons such as the relative ease of enforcing domestic judgments and comity-grounded concerns of reciprocal overreaching. Without rehearsing more fully the claims of territoriality as a governing principle of the reach of law, 10 it is clear that courts and scholars justifying the territoriality of trademark law have resorted to some of the same arguments that are advanced in other fields of law. 11 As I will explain in greater detail below, however, there are additional reasons that explain the territorial character of trademark law. Some flow from the intrinsic nature and purpose of trademarks; others reflect the shape of economic policymaking; and yet others reflect the structure of political institutions used to administer and enforce trademark law. For present purposes, it is sufficient to note that it is in some sense hardly radical to find that trademark law is territorial. In trademark law, the principle of territoriality is a vessel 8.

TERRITORIALITY CHALLENGES FOR TRADEMARK PROTECTION IN A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS

IAEME PUBLICATION, 2024

In today's global economy, protecting trademarks within the international legal framework has become increasingly significant. The territoriality doctrine, a principle in public international law, empowers sovereign states to have sole jurisdiction and authority over individuals and legal entities operating within their geographic boundaries. This paper explores the functioning of trademark protection across various countries, with a particular emphasis on two key principles: transborder reputation and its evolving jurisprudence. The concept of transborder reputation is analyzed in detail, underscoring its importance compared to the traditionally territorial nature of trademark regimes under intellectual property rights. The paper also discusses several judicially developed safeguards that form the basis of transborder reputation protection, including criteria for establishing a trademark's reputation beyond its country of origin and the evidentiary requirements to prove such reputation. Challenges faced by multinational corporations in protecting their trademarks internationally are highlighted, focusing on the balance between territorial principles and global brand recognition. The study concludes with recommendations for enhancing international cooperation and strengthening legal frameworks to support the enforcement of trademark rights globally.

CORPORATE STRATEGIC BRANDING: HOW COUNTRY AND CORPORATE BRANDS COME TOGETHER

The concept of countries as brands has been increasingly recognized in the post-modern global world. A strong country brand can provide corporate brands with a unique set of values, which supports their positioning on the international market. Simultaneously, once corporate brands achieve worldwide success, they contribute actively to developing new features of the country brand. Consumers pay more and more attention to products' country of origin. When the name of a country is mentioned, they can have positive associations (high quality, modern design, product innovation), which means that the country itself has a powerful brand. However, there are opposite cases where we talk about the weak branding of a particular country. It is necessary to mobilise all the available forces of politicians, business people, artists, sportsmen and scientists to create a strategy for enhancing the image and reputation of a country on the international markets, i.e. for creating the national branding strategy.

Company Versus Country Branding: “Same, same but Different”

Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2014

The aim of this study is to investigate whether countries can be branded like companies. Company brands are managed according to clear ownership and top-down control of brand management. In contrast, countries are governed according to the public interest, which requires transparency and participation.