Can you really brand an adjective?
A competing PR firm recently launched a website similar to my own and chose to title their publicists "Brand Advocates." We have been doing that for close to a decade and to this day I know of no other PR firm, until now, that has done so. I know I can’t pursue this PR firm legally, as these are common words, but I will just take it as a compliment and hope that their haute trending will become more original in the future.
That is why this week when I read about Nude Skincare trying to lay claim of the term "Nude," my eyes began to roll. Can a marketer really own the term “nude?” Bryan Meehan from Greenmont Capital, who co-founded Nude Skincare with Ali Hewson, seems to think so. They are moving forward with the lawsuit against Stella McCartney for her upcoming fragrance which she has named Nude. They are claiming stake in the branding of the word nude. Now I ask you, can you own a simple adjective as such? What do you think Pierre-Auguste Renoir would think with his 1910 painting entitled; Nude? Or Bill Blass and his 1990 fragrance also entitled Nude. Bill and Pierre might not be around today to stake legal claim in these commonly used vocabulary terms, but I ask you – should cosmetic companies who have overly aggressive legal council go on a vengeance against such simple terminology?
Nude is often a shade also used to coin a color in cosmetics, it tells the consumer a product is natural looking, barely visible, sometimes naturally based or close to feeling like nothing on the skin. I wonder if the folks at Nude Skincare will go after all of these other companies as well such as Smashbox for their Nude Lipliner or bareMinerals for their Nude Lip Trio. Dior and Bobbi Brown cosmetics both have a very extensive collection of products called Nude. Bobbi went so far last summer to launch an entire collection called Nude similar to Ultima II’s nude collection from the 90’s. And let’s also not forget Bijan’s fragrance last year also called NUDE for Women.
So what do you think? Is it really realistic to think you can own a commonly used word and then sue those who use it?
Posted by Pierce Mattie on August 17, 2009 5:42 AM
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Comments (1)
I totally agree with you, Pierce. I have had my company name, Goddess of Skin, for twelve years now. In the beginning, if you entered Goddess, or Goddess Skin, or Goddess Skin Care, my company was always at least the first two or three listings on Google. Now, with the saturation of everything "Goddess", I have had to expand my brand with my new Skin Care line. With an entirely new identity. I believe with the growth of the web and social media, the lines of trademarks are going to be VERY blurred. This is where time needs to be spent, looking for that original brand name. Instead of chasing after something which really does not belong to you in the first place.
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Dayle Breault |
August 17, 2009 11:57 AM
Posted on August 17, 2009 11:57