July 20, 2016
Something in the Water – An Increased Number of Brand Changes
Something in the Water – An Increased Number of Brand Changes

First, around this time last year, Spotify changed the shade of green that it uses for its colour scheme. Then, earlier this year, OHIM rebranded itself to the EUIPO. Following this, Instagram scrapped its retro brown and cream camera with a rainbow stripe and unveiled a new icon in popping purple, orange and pink. A few weeks later, the classic-looking black and white Uber logo was forsaken for a logo containing colourful geometric shapes, with different colour schemes depending on the country. And now, just a few days ago, Mastercard has also jumped on the brand change band wagon and has replaced its iconic trade mark with a simplified, slimmer and arguably sleeker version of the red and yellow overlapping circle logo.

Are these changes for the better? You can be the judge. OHIM’s rebrand was part of a larger set of reforms and has been criticised for being misleading – the EUIPO does not currently deal with patents, despite being an “intellectual property office”. Spotify’s change in the shade of green sparked Twitter outrage, but designer Tobias van Schneider has advised that the change was part of a “brand refresh” to take the logo away from its old ”broccoli” green. For Instagram, Uber and Mastercard, the changes seem to have been driven by the divergence and expansion of these businesses, especially in the digital world, and have been met with largely positive responses.

From all of this, one thing seems certain – a change in any branding brings with it concerns and challenges, especially with regards to intellectual property. We outlined some of these in our post here when OHIM rebranded itself to the EUIPO.

A quick search of the UK trade marks register reveals that Instagram and Uber have been quick to apply for their new logos (UK Trade Mark Application Nos, 3164163, 3171638 and 3171650), whereas Mastercard has long registered two overlapping circles in red and yellow (UK Trade Mark No. 1287423). Spotify naturally has EU trade mark registrations for its logo in green (given the date of filing, likely to be the “broccoli green” version) as well as in black and white. Although Spotify does not appear to have trade mark applications or registrations for its non-broccoli green logo (in Europe at least), noting the Specsavers v Asda case (see our report here), this may not be necessary.

If you are thinking of rebranding, or want to discuss the above, please feel free to get in touch.

Tags
Trademarks /  Finance /  Arts & Entertainment

Found this article interesting today?
Send us your thoughts: