Why it all matters Clause Samples

Why it all matters. Trademark law is hardly a sexy subject, and linking it to design can seem like tying a plough to a racehorse, but it’s vital to the success of everybody in the Virgin group. In the last five years we’ve spent around £5.5m protecting our own trademarks with licence agreements, registrations and applications. We’ve also spent around £7m on litigation, lawyers and settlements to fight off copycats and infringements. That’s a lot of money. The chief cause of costs is the fact we constantly come under challenge. Firstly from people who want to bar or qualify our access to a new market. They are usually acting for legitimate reasons (competition and so on), but they need responding to legally. Secondly, there are people who’d love to have a little of that Virgin magic rub off on their own business, and who aren’t above a little shameless copying in order to achieve this. Some of these - like Virginia and Virgin Pizza opposite - might seem small beer, but others can be tiresomely expensive. One individual has tried to register 37 different Verjam companies: Verjam Group, Verjam Management, Verjam Music, Verjam Cola and so on. We can chuckle at this, but the danger of customers being confused as to what is genuine Virgin and what’s not is both real and growing. Customers’ perception of our quality can be affected if lower-quality outfits are allowed to trade under ‘Virgin’, or under something that visually mimics the logo. (And believe us we are talking lower quality: we tasted a Virgin pizza.) There are also instances where we need to come to agreements, for example if we move into a new market where someone else already uses Virgin. When Virgin Atlantic starting flying to South Africa, we needed to establish the Virgin brand - which meant settling with long-established but ‘not us’ outfits like Virgin Health Club Group - so that we became what people thought of when they thought of Virgin. It would be good to reduce the costs of all this. And, given that we’re expanding globally, we have to - or it could become a huge burden. One simple way of doing so is for all group companies not to break the seven deadly sins - explained over the following pages. That may sound a bit melodramatic, but it’s fairly straightforward. In essence it means being aware of seven issues whenever you design an identity, dream up a name or endorse something with the Virgin brand. If we all think about these issues, then we’re keeping our own house in order - which makes it easier for VE...