Unicorn meat anyone?

Surely even lawyers like a good joke now and then – it is pleasing to see that some “brands” can have a bit of fun…

The story goes that ThinkGeek launched a canned unicorn meat product (think about it) under the slogan “Pâté is passé. Unicorn – the new white meat.” Apparently the National Pork Board did not see the joke and sent a 12 page cease and desist letter claiming that ThinkGeek had infringed their slogan “The Other White Meat”.

For the full story see here . You’ll see that ThinkGeek name this the “officially our best-ever cease and desist“! Try to buy and see what happens….

NZ’s most trusted brands

One of the key features of a brand is the element of trust it conveys to consumers.

After many years reign as New Zealand’s most trusted brand Cadbury has been knocked off its perch – presumably due in part to its change from cocoa butter to palm oil and discontinuation of three iconic NZ sweets (snifters , tangy fruits and sparkles) by Watties. From one food icon to another… Sadly neither of these companies are New Zealand owned companies, the former now being part of the Kraft family and the later owned by Heinz.

However, when the full list of category winners is looked at it is pleasing to see that a number of New Zealand owned companies (Mitre 10, Kiwibank, Fisher & Paykel, New World, Air New Zealand, NZ Post and Resene) feature in the list.

City branding – Auckland City holding competition for new super city logo

The concept of city branding is an interesting one.

With the formation of the new “super city” Auckland, the Auckland city council is running a city logo design competition, presumably to save the thousands of dollars such an exercise would cost if put out to tender to design agencies.

However, the cost of design is potentially only a small fraction of the cost with reports that the last rebranding exercise for Auckland cost $1 million in 2007.

Auckland city has already had a number of different, and in some cases controversial logos, over the years. The last logo was considered by some to be very similar to the existing logo for a local television station which created some bad PR and must have incurred costs for both parties. However, as both the TV station and City Council have obtained registration of their respective “triangle” trade mark they clearly came to a co-existence arrangement.

While saving rate payers money by holding a public competition for the new logo design the judges may be faced with some interesting and no doubt tongue in cheek entries given the way some people “south of the Bombay Hills” feel about Auckland.

Let’s hope the Council undertakes the necessary searches before settling on the winning design to avoid any IP issues in the future.

Ispy Levis’ twitter campaign

A creative and fun way to revitalize a long standing, but apparently out of favour, fashion brand.

If only I’d know about this at this time – it looks like it was a fun treasure hunt. (Thanks to digitalbuzz blog for content).

Scent marks – differences in registration criteria: NZ cf Argentina

I read with some interest this week, at International Law Office, that the first scent trade mark has been registered in Argentina.

There were a couple of interesting things about this case, as reported at ILO. First, Argentinean trade mark law does not provide for registration of scent trade marks per se. The trade mark, filed by L’Oreal, comprised the fragrance of a (specified) fruit applied to the container of the goods (there were a number of applications for different fruit scents). The application was filed in international class 3 so it would cover the type of product that of itself usually has a scent (i.e. perfume, body lotion, shampoo etc). In finding the trade mark registrable, the National Institute of Industrial Property did not require the trade mark to be capable of graphic representation or visual perception, as long as it could be described in words.

This article caused me to check to see whether in the 10 years since it has been possible to register scent trade marks in New Zealand, any had in fact proceeded to registration. To my surprise I see only one scent trade mark application has been filed in New Zealand – “the smell of cinnamon” for pharmaceutical products – and this single application was denied registration by the Commissioner of Trade Marks.

I see that proprietor’s of scent trade marks in Australia have fared only marginally better with one scent mark registration for a Eucalyptus Radiata scent for golf tees.

Clearly our sense of smell is a greatly overlooked potential for brand owners and marketing people.

From iSnack 2.0 to Cheesybite

Following a telephone survey of 30,000+ people in Australia and New Zealand, Kraft has settled on the new name VEGEMITE CHEESYBITE – see the survey results here.

Look out for it on a shelf near you…

At least we can’t accuse them of being cheesy, mate – but I do wonder what Pizza Hut may think of this new trade mark given their CHEESEY BITES PIZZA registrations in Australia and New Zealand.

VEGEMITE CHEESYBITE has already been accepted for registration as a trade mark in New Zealand, but an application has not yet been filed in Australia.

Joyeux Anniversaire Coco!

Today in history – 19 August – Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel was born. A pioneer in fashion and creator of many famous brands still registered in New Zealand and around the world today. And also the subject of the movie currently on general release in New Zealand – “Coco before Chanel” starring the stunning Audrey Tautou.

( (C) Coco Chanel. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 19, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/105474/Coco-Chanel )

Power to the consumer!

About a month ago Cadbury New Zealand started marketing bars of chocolate which were different in two key respects from the chocolate that they used to supply – they contained palm oil instead of cocoa butter and were of a smaller size (but not price).

Thanks to the media bringing this to consumers’ attention there has been sufficient consumer feedback and boycotting of Cadbury products that Cadbury had done a U-turn on its decision to use palm oil (although not it seems the smaller size).

How re-freshing to see the consumer’s voice being heard! Even brands of long standing and large reputation need to listen to their consumers.