Come On, Everyone’s Doing It
When you look at trends in trademark filings, it can be surprising how many Individuals (as oppose to the usual corporate players) file trademarks. Here’s an example of that phenomenon in the beverage industry.
In 2008 Individuals (as opposed company entities) filed over 1900 trademark applications which cover the non-alcoholic beverage industry.
It seems like everyone’s developing their own line of energy drink or enhanced water these days. Perhaps it’s thanks to the number of private labeling, bottle manufacturing and custom flavor companies? Whatever the case, all you need these days is a good name and some money to spare and you’re well on your way to making a name for yourself in this hyper-caffeinated world.
Snacks & Comfort Foods: Distilling Competitive Intelligence From Trademarks
Monitoring your competitors’ trademark filings each week alerts you to new activity, but having a summary of their filings from the past six months to a year presents a big picture. It shows you the overall direction that your competitors or industry is headed. When individual trademarks are presented in context over time, the results can be luminous. Even if the product or brand has already been
launched, having recent trademark portfolios at your finger tips is an excellent Competitive Intelligence resource.
Below is an example of three companies in the Food industry along with their filings (sorted by date) from the past 6 months. Here is what we can learn from this:
- Just a quick glance gives you a quick update of what they’ve been up to.
- Often, closely related products will have the same or similar Filing Date.
- Some of the non-food related trademarks have been highlight just to show some standouts apart from the main industry.
- Although this is a snap-shot of the past six months, some of these products have yet to be announced.
