Successful businesses harness the power of the sights and sounds associated with their products.
Entire cultures can develop around the branding of business.
This power over the minds of consumers can be calculated and given a monetary value entirely on its own.
And because branding has it’s own value, the law protects it.
This legal protection shares its history with origin of the word “brand”.
A cattle brand was a mark that ranchers made on their livestock to identify which ranch produced the cattle.
If another rancher was caught mimicking a brand, that was considered stealing.
One of my favorite examples of the connection between cattle ranching and trademarks comes from a lawsuit brought by KING RANCH.
King Ranch was founded in southern Texas by Richard King, and cattle coming out of King Ranch was marked by a brand in the shape of a wavy “W”.
Today, King Ranch has licensed its name and the wavy “W” for use on Ford trucks.
In a case out of the Federal Court in Houston, King Ranch sued a small used car dealership that included the words King Ranch in its name.
The dealership wasn’t trying to sell knock offs or stealing the logo.
The only reason they were sued was for having the words “king ranch” in the name of their used car business.
Now, the word “king” and word “ranch” by themselves aren’t very strong trademarks.
Even when you put them together, “king ranch” might not mean a whole lot.
But for over 150 years, King Ranch argues that it has developed its brand so that when those two words are put together it has value in Texas.
Another example comes from the University of Houston.
There are 3 major law schools in Houston: Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, University of Houston Law Center, and South Texas College of Law.
In 2016, South Texas College of Law changed its name to “Houston College of Law”.
Now, generic words and names of places by themselves can’t really be trademarked by any new business just starting out.
There’s nothing inherently special about a name like Houston Doughnut Shop.
You can’t get more basic than that.
But, if you can create an image around that name, a brand that everyone in the entire city of Houston recognizes as being THE Houston doughnut shop, then maybe you have a chance to protect a trademark.
That was exactly University of Houston’s argument when it sued South Texas College of Law.
UofH law school is known as THE Houston law school. “Houston College of Law” could easily be confused with “University of Houston Law Center.”
UofH didn’t want students enrolling and paying for classes at “Houston College of Law” by mistake.
Finally, the convenience store and gas station chain Buc-ee’s has gained significant popularity among Texas drivers.
Buc-ee’s highway signs display a yellow circle with the iconic cartoon beaver wearing a read hat.
Choke Canyon is also a chain of rest stops, but their logo is a yellow circle with a cartoon alligator wearing a cowboy hat.
A jury agreed with the attorney for Buc-ee’s that the alligator logo, among other things, could create a likelihood of confusion.
This is a great example of how a logo can look very different, but trademark battles can still be fought and won over the similarities and the likelihood of confusion.
So, be careful when building your branding, and perhaps you can avoid getting sued.