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What's Your Trademark Worth? Determining the Value of Trademarks For Collateral, Sale or Licensing
We all know that trademarks are valuable business assets and that's why we, as intellectual property counsel, go to such great lengths to register and protect our client's trademarks. What happens when times are tough? If a client needs money, can it turn to its trademark portfolio to generate income or securitize a loan? Does the goodwill a client company has worked so hard to build mean anything when there is a financial crisis? This article explores the options available to a client to value its trademarks during a financial crisis, to ensure one of the most valuable assets it owns can continue to work for the company and see it through the lean times so that it can continue to exist and flourish for many years to come.
Why Trademark Registrations Are So Valuable
Unlike other branches of intellectual property law, where the rights lapse after a span of time, trademark registrations are valuable because they can last indefinitely, so long as they continue to be used in commerce as a distinctive brand to distinguish a client's goods and services. A federal trademark registration is required to take down social media infringers, combat counterfeiters, and sell a client's wares in an Amazon seller store. A registration can be helpful when seeking an investment for any start-up or new business, writing cease and desist letters, or suing infringers. It significantly increases the value of any license agreement and initial public stock offering, or when it's time to securitize a portfolio or sell the business.
The first trademark was registered at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 1870. The TIFFANY & CO. mark registered in 1893 and has been used since 1868 for jewelry and watches. Last year, LVMH bought the entire company and all of its marks (including the Tiffany blue trademark that has been registered as a color mark since 1998), for $16.2 billion, a record for a luxury brand. Earlier negotiations valued the entire Tiffany portfolio in the $13-$14 billion range, but Tiffany & Co. kept pushing for a higher value. How did Tiffany determine its sales price and what were some of the factors that led to its record setting valuation?
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Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
The Stranger to the Deed Rule
In 1987, a unanimous Court of Appeals reaffirmed the vitality of the "stranger to the deed" rule, which holds that if a grantor executes a deed to a grantee purporting to create an easement in a third party, the easement is invalid. Daniello v. Wagner, decided by the Second Department on November 29th, makes it clear that not all grantors (or their lawyers) have received the Court of Appeals' message, suggesting that the rule needs re-examination.