Fair Use: Friend or Foe?

Palm Trees Against Sunlight on Meadows

Several months back in an article discussing Brand Extendibility, I touched on a humorous exchange between In-N-Out Burger and a microbrewery regarding some obvious trademark infringement. In that case, the burger chain’s attorneys decided to approach the situation in a light hearted manner, issuing a pun-filled cease and desist notice. Earlier this month, however, the company decided to take a different approach in dealing with infringement on its coveted trademarks. German shoe maker, Puma, recently released a sneaker called the “Cali-0 Drive Thru”which prominently features the In-N-Out palm tree logo on the laces, in addition to the white, yellow, and red color scheme used by the burger company. It is possible that Puma, and shoe designer Mike Cherman of Chinatown Market, felt that use of the trademark was in the confines of fair use, particularly given the amusing promotional videos released on Puma’s Instagram page. Although a statement made by In-N-Out’s executive vice president firmly asserts otherwise:

“By using In-N-Out’s designs and trade dress, Puma and Cherman intentionally confused consumers for their own benefit and have also created the impression that our marks and unique trade dress are available for public use.”

Trademark protection allows owners to stop the use of their registered marks in order to prevent any confusion by the public regarding the source of  a good or service. Under certain circumstances, however, fair useof a registered trademark is permitted. According to the International Trademark Association, there are two types of fair use: Descriptive Fair Useand Nominative Fair Use. Descriptive FairUsepermits the use of an existing trademark in order to describe your own product or service. For example, courts ruled that the WD-40 Company’suse of the word “inhibitor” was permitted to describe its product as one that inhibits long-term corrosion, even though “The Inhibitor” is a registered trademark. Another example is the use of the phrase “sweet-tart” to describe the flavors of a juice, despite SweeTart being a registered trademark of a candy company. In Puma’s case, it would seem that descriptive fair use does not apply. In fact, after reviewing the official description of the sneakers, which says that they pay homage to California’s “burger diners,” one might argue that infringement of the In-N-Out palm trees is even more blatant. Puma might be covered by descriptive fair use if it described a pair of shoes as “easy to slip in and outof,” for example, but in this case infringement seems probable.

The second type of fair use, Nominative Fair Use, permits the use of a trademark to refer to the actual good or service offered by the trademark owner. Most commonly, nominative fair use is used by the media in its reporting on certain events or products, such as the Boston Marathon, which is a registered trademark of the Boston Athletic Association. Nominative fair use is also often leaned on for parody of a brand or product. I suspect that Puma may have gambled on the Drive Thru shoes being covered by nominative fair use given the videos (mentioned earlier) that show the sneakers frolicking in a field of hamburgers. However, Puma still included the palm tree logo on its shoes and never directly mentions or gives credit to In-N-Out. Under different circumstances, Puma may have been permitted to use In-N-Out’s name in a parody promotional video for its Drive Thru shoes, although direct use of the palm trees for Puma’s own benefit without In-N-Out’s consent would likely never be permitted.

In-N-Out has a reputation for taking swift action against any party that might be threatening the integrity of its brand. After investing millions of dollars to build brand equity, most companies aim to protect their brands with the same vigor. Fair use may seem like just another legal loophole at first; however, in some cases brands might actually stand to benefit from the use of its trademark (particularly through parody and nominative fair use) by nature of increased exposure. Take Levi’s for example – a company that has been successfully working to re-build its brand equity through various means such as stadium naming rights, which I’ve covered in the past. In 2017, Saturday Night Live broadcasted a skit that parodied both pop culture and the brand itself, titled “Levi’s Wokes.” Among the SNL regulars, the skit also prominently featured movie star Ryan Gosling wearing a pair of ridiculous jeans jokingly produced by Levi’s. As of this writing, the video has over 3.3 million views on the SNL YouTube channel alone. For a company that was looking to reinvent itself and reintroduce its brand name as a pop culture icon, one can only assume that this type of publicity was welcomed with open arms.

Monitoring trademark infringement is key to any successful branding strategy. The last thing a brand manager wants is to lose control of public perception of the brand, and infringing products or services can be a catalyst for just that. In-N-Out actually sells its own pair for branded shoes on the company website and seems to command adequate public attention without Puma’s help – a quick Google search for something like “In-N-Out vs. Shake Shack” reveals just how prominent the burger chain is in pop culture. In certain instances, particularly those covered by fair use, brand managers with a keen instinct to protect their investments may have to take a back seat. In such cases, it is important, to understand and even embrace fair useof a brand, and recognize the benefits that it may bring. Just ask Levi’s who recently went public after a 30+ year hiatus from the stock exchange and has seen a roughly 30% increase over its $17 IPO price.

Preventing Brand Value from Going Up in Flames

A brand can be one of a company’s most valuable assets. As written in a previous post, the value of a brand has the potential to cover millions of dollars in debt and fees during liquidation events, and can even represent values greater than 100% of a company’s publicly reported asset values.

Traditionally, the value that a brand (including all accompanying trademarks, copyrights, etc.) provides to a company can be boiled down to 2 main categories; ability to charge premium prices, and diminishing marginal marketing costs as a company expands. A strong brand can allow a business to charge premium prices for its products and/or services, above and beyond what a consumer would typically be willing to pay. The most obvious example of this branding power at play is with Apple. Fanatics (myself included) will argue that Apple products are superior to the competition in many different ways, which results in higher priced phones, computers, tablets etc. While superior product features certainly contribute to the company’s premium prices, it is undeniable that the brand – which has become synonymous with quality, design, and innovation – drives consumers to pay excessive prices.  The value of the Apple brand is on full display when looking at industry profit statistics. According to an Investor’s Business Daily article published in February of this year, Apple claimed 87% of total industry-wide smartphone profits while only accounting for 18% of unit sales in the previous quarter.

Given the immense value that a well-established brand can provide, it is unsurprising that many companies take extreme measures when it comes to protecting that asset. The traditional measures that companies take to protect their brand include setting strict internal regulations on how the brand is used, as well as air-tight restrictions on how the brand is used externally for brand representatives or licensees. A good example of these “traditional” brand protection efforts is the Louis Vuitton lawsuit against My Other Bag, claiming that the parody handbags dilute the “distinctive quality” of the Louis Vuitton trademarks. In fact, many companies actively police the use of their trademarks and copyrights by employing staff to search for instances where such use does not comply with their standards in an effort to intervene and avoid any lasting damage to the brand.

Aside from these traditional efforts, some companies take brand protection to the next level. According to a recent BBC article, luxury fashion retailer Burberry literally burned £28.6 million worth of clothes, accessories, and perfumes last year. In an effort to protect the Burberry brand from dilution via unwanted discount sales or theft, the company incinerates its excess stock in a specially designed furnace that captures the energy from the process for re-use (which does little to please the environmental proponents who oppose this process). Over the past 5 years, it is estimated that more that £90 million worth of Burberry goods have suffered the fate of the furnace – which gives us a pretty good understanding of just how highly the company values its brand. For further context, we can examine Burberry’s most recent Annual Report, dated June 6, 2018. The company reports roughly £19 million and £40 million in “Additions” to its “Intangible assets in the course of construction” over the last 2 years. From this, we gather that Burberry incinerates tangible goods for the sake of protecting its brand that are valued at amounts nearly equal to, if not greater than, the amount it spends on developing new intangible assets.

It is important to note that Burberry is not alone in the practice of destroying its unsold goods for the purpose of protecting its brand. Constant pressure from shareholders for expansion and production often pushes fashion companies to produce excess stock – presenting them with the choice between costly inventory repurchases (regularly followed by destruction) or running the risk of brand dilution and devaluation. The measures that these companies go to in order to protect their brand is a clear indication of just how valuable they are. Burberry and its peers watch tangible value go up in flames to secure the massive future cash flows made possible by their intangible assets.

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