Have you ever seen a new product on the shelf and bought it, simply because the branding looked fantastic? The power of trade marks in the food and drink sector is an almighty one. You can see the success of food and drink products rise and fall simply due to the customer’s impression of the mark, be it the flavour of the month or tomorrow’s chip paper – who remembers Sunny Delight?
Over the next month, the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) are running a campaign focusing on the food and drink sector, a sector that relies heavily on trade mark protection as a protection and enforcement tool. Tennant IP has a great depth of experience in this sector, helping hundreds of clients obtain trade mark registration rights for food and drink products, from restaurants and bars to snack food, pre-prepared meals and even coffee, beers and alcoholic spirits.
This blog aims to touch upon why trade marks are vital to help companies protect their food and drink brands. In order to understand this relationship between the product and the brands that represent them, we must first understand the nuances of the food and drink sector.
The important factors are:
• Firstly, the industry is massive business, primarily down to the fact that everyone has to eat and drink in order to stay alive. This essential status means that consumption is key and from a trade mark point of view, people need to know exactly where the food and drink they are purchasing originate from – which is the function of a trade mark!
• Your customers do not spend much time inspecting the food and drink they are purchasing. If you think about it, in your weekly supermarket shop, how much time do you take to study and inspect the products you are buying? For some products that you have been brand loyal to, the purchasing decision could even be made without conscious thought.
• Thirdly, a lot of products out of the packaging do not look attractive at the point of sale and so the brand names you use are the main selling tool to get a customer to purchase your product.
• The majority of food and drink products are indistinguishable out of the packaging in comparison to competitor’s products. By looking the same, branding and packaging are incredibly important to differentiate your products from the rest. Most beers have a similar colouration? Coffee beans from one supplier look the same as beans from another? It would be interesting to see if any baked bean experts could tell the difference between brands from viewing the products out of the tin. Consequently, it is vital that the branding can separate your product over the others.
• Finally, it is competitive. If you are bringing a new product into the food and drink market, the chances are you are up against several existing brands in the market. Yes, you might have a USP that can differentiate your product from the rest but, generally speaking, your product will sit on the shelves amongst other similar products. In that sense, you need to stand out and marketing experts know all about the “7 second rule” about making an impression on customers.
So, for the reasons above, having a strong brand will help you to sell more of your products and having strong trade marks rights is an essential part of having a strong brand.
What good is having a strong brand if you haven’t registered the trade marks and obtain formal trade mark rights? The answer is that your brand is worthless.
By registering your trade marks, be it:
• Your company brand name,
• Product names,
• Logos,
• Unique slogans,
• Unique shapes of packaging or product
You obtain the formal rights to use those trade marks on the same and similar goods and services you use the mark upon. Furthermore, you obtain the right to stop others from using the same or similar mark on the same or similar goods and services.
In the food and drink sector, having that power means that you protect your corner of the market and stop consumers from mistakenly buying one of your competitor’s products, when they intended to buy yours (us customers cannot be trusted all of the time, as shown in the second point).
When you consider the time and money you have spent on building your brand, be it through activities including design work and marketing campaigns, why should someone else piggy back of your creativity and effort by using something that is similar? The answer is they can’t if you have the registered trade mark rights.
How can Tennant IP help you?
Tennant IP has great experience in helping companies in the food and beverage sector obtain and protect their brands and logos. If you have not yet sought legal advice regarding the protection and registration of your trade marks, we can:
• Help you to identify the trade marks that registration should be sought, both from an effectiveness and cost-efficiency standpoint.
• Identify the goods and services that are appropriate for an application.
• Run clearance searches to ensure that no-one else is already using the same or similar mark
• File applications and represent your application throughout the process, from application to registration.
• Help you deal with any contentious third-party use and help you understand your trade mark rights.
Our success stories have included:
• Nakd and Trek bars – our advice provided a strong base for Natural Balance Foods to grow from a start up in a fast-growing market of healthy snack bars to become a market leader in the snack food sector in the UK.
• Tiny Rebel – by protecting both the family brand name and iconic beers, our advice and trade mark filing strategy helped Tiny Rebel to become the pioneering, award winning craft beer brand in the UK and internationally.
• Fuel10k cereal products were the originators of adding protein to products to give the consumer an extra boost at breakfast time. By securing trade mark rights early, the brand has protected itself against a number of new entrants into the market and continues to grow from strength to strength with national distribution across major supermarkets in the UK.
You may be considering starting up a business in this area. In fact, you may have been forced into doing something different, due to the recent pandemic seeing a rise in new businesses. Don’t make the mistake of taking a brand to market without seeking trade mark protection beforehand, it is not expensive and is worth its weight in gold.
Michael Tennant is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney and Director at Tennant IP. For any enquiries, please contact:
Email: mike@tennantip.co.uk
Phone number: 01633 258792
