Trademarks and the Internet May 22, 2014

Transcription

1 Trademarks and the Internet May 22, 2014 Abhishek Nagaraj PhD Student, MIT Sloan

2 Agenda Thanks to Thomson Reuters for their support Presentation Discussion 2

3 Research Question Do digitization and the internet deepen firms approach to trademarking? 3

4 Search Engines dominate brand discovery online: Yes: Firms who invest heavily in search engine optimization may want to be very secure in their trademark 4

5 Search Engines dominate brand discovery online: Yes: Firms who invest heavily in search engine optimization may want to be very secure in their trademark No: Firms may reckon that search engines update quicker than offline consumer sentiment and memory 5

6 Search Engines dominate brand discovery online: Yes: Firms who invest heavily in search engine optimization may want to be very secure in their trademark No: Firms may reckon that search engines update quicker than offline consumer sentiment and memory No: search engines may make it easier for internet firms to use highly fanciful previously unused trademarks which are less likely to be problematic. 6

7 One Sentence Summary Internet firms appear to take a more superficial approach to trademark research. This seems rational as they face less trademark failure than offline firms. 7

8 Why this matters for Thomson Reuters Adjusting products such as Thomson CompuMark to fit a changing system of priorities for internet age. 8

9 Why this matters for Academic Enquiry First study on firm s trademarking research practices and how they are changing. Linkage to deeper understanding of branding activity and how the internet changes this. 9

10 Data Sources Thomson Reuters trademark search logs Size and direction of activity County Business Patterns (CBP) Identify internet firms on a county basis Consumer Expenditure Survey Spending on the internet Google Trends Internet Search Data General internet usage in a region USPTO data on Trademark Filings Post-Research Trademark Registration Practices 10

11 Internet Firms There are 674 Cities in Thomson Data with corresponding firm data in CBP data Mean Establishments = 4366 Mean Internet Establishments =

12 US vs. Extensive Searches US Screening Screening services restricted to the US. WISS Plus Stands for Worldwide Identical Screening Search Plus. Think globally. Cost-effectively screen your trademark in more than 200 countries and registers worldwide to pinpoint identical marks. KISS Plus Target search in the country of choice to identify identical marks with current status information for the world s most commercially important jurisdictions. RISS Plus It provides current status information for the world s most commercially important jurisdictions. Typical regions are South & Central America, USA (Federal Trademarks) & Canada, or Asia & Australasia etc. 12

13 Forgive Me There will now follow a series of tables with numbers and stars. This is how economists share information. Stars mean that something is statistically meaningful. I will endeavor to write out what they mean. 13

14 14 Internet Firms less likely to research International Filings

15 15 Smaller Internet Firms are even more local in their approach

16 Why is this? Perhaps internet firms are just very local in their perspective. 16

17 17 Small Internet Firms more likely to make Filings

18 18 Internet Firms more likely to make International Filings

19 19 This is driven by internet firms, not consumer behavior

20 20 This is driven by internet firms, not consumer internet expenditure

21 Why is this? Internet Firms are more tolerant of trademark failure Failure is less costly Internet Firms expect less failure. Perhaps because search engines make fanciful and abstract marks easier to use. 21

22 Different Types A fanciful trademark is prima facie registrable, and comprises an entirely invented or fanciful sign. (e.g. Kodak for film). An arbitrary trademark is usually a common word which is used in a meaningless context (e.g. Apple for computers). A suggestive trademark tends to indicate the nature, quality, or a characteristic of the products or services in relation to which it is used, but does not describe this characteristic, and requires imagination on the part of the consumer to identify the characteristic. (e.g. Microsoft for computers). 22

23 23 Internet firms less likely to be opposed

24 24 Internet firms are less likely to abandon

25 Taken together, these suggest: Fewer subsequent trademark hiccups for internet firms. 25

26 Limitations Only look at pure play internet firms No analysis of whether internet firms do indeed use more fanciful marks. 26

27 Thank you PI: Catherine Tucker. Thanks to Thomson Reuters from me and Song Lin, the grant supported parts of our PhDs! 27

28 Punchline Internet firms less likely to invest in the more comprehensive trademark research products. Though internet firms are more likely to have extensive trademark registrations But this may be a rational response as they seem to face lower rates of opposition and abandonment. 28

29 Questions and Thoughts? 29