Brand rights are a company's strategic asset

The value the customer experiences by purchasing the product or service determines the price set for such product or service. The customer is willing to pay a price corresponding to the perceived value. The brand, on the other hand, is the communication of this value to the customer. A brand consists of various elements, such as words, patterns, their combinations, slogans, the appearance of products and packaging, colours, sounds, music, scents, etc. Exclusive rights to these brand elements can be acquired by registering brand rights.

Brand rights include the company's official names, i.e. trade names and auxiliary trade names; product and service identifiers, i.e. trademarks; website addresses, i.e. domain names; designs of products or packaging, i.e. design rights; and content, i.e. copyright.

The value of brand rights comes from the addition they give to the price. The higher the additional price generated by the brand elements is and the weaker they are protected by brand rights, the more they attract and enable competitors to profit by imitating or directly copying these brand elements.

Brand right strategy means systematic care of brand rights

A brand right strategy is a purposeful and customized plan for managing the company's brand rights based on the company's resources. A brand rights strategy is part of a successful company's brand strategy and evolves along with it. To put it simply, a brand right strategy means the systematic management of brand rights, where all individual measures related to the protection, enforcement, maintenance, development, use and utilization of brand rights are based on a prepared strategy.

With a brand rights strategy, decisions related to the company's brand rights, for example new registration applications, are converted from individual and isolated actions to systematic and strategic decisions supporting the long-term goals.

A brand right strategy is needed to increase the brand value 

Every brand owner needs at least a basic level brand right strategy. For a large part of companies, intangible brand rights form a significant part of their value and are thus a strategic asset of the company. Such companies need a more comprehensive brand right strategy.

The amount of brand rights also typically increases as the company's operations continue and grow. Some brand rights may lose their importance over time. Adding or abandoning brand rights should also be based on strategic decisions. Successful and efficient management of brand rights and increasing the value are based on a prepared brand right strategy, which is implemented through practical measures based on it.

The brand right strategy answers the questions of how the company's brand rights are

• created,
• protected,
• utilized,
• used,
• enforced,
• maintained, and
• audited.

With a brand right strategy, the company ensures that exclusive rights to the most commercially valuable brand elements are acquired now and in the future, their infringements are monitored and they are used in the right way to maintain and strengthen the protection. With the help of the brand right strategy, a company knows how to act when creating new brand elements to ensure their registrability or at least their usability, i.e., freedom to operate. All individual measures based on the brand right strategy are optimized from the point of view of benefit within the limits of the company's available resources. All measures are consistent, systematic, support each other and are properly targeted. All this increases the value of the company's brand elements and thereby the brand to the maximum, taking into account the company's resources.

Implementation of the brand right strategy

The brand right strategy is developed in a collaborative workshop with the company's management and our experts, typically lasting from half a day to a full day. The workshop begins by assessing the current state of the company's brand elements and brand rights.

Following this, the company's business plans and objectives are reviewed, and the elements of the brand rights strategy are synchronized to support these goals and plans. Finally, the brand rights strategy is drafted in written form based on the guidelines and decisions made during the workshop.

A plan is then created to identify the practical measures and tasks required to implement the strategy. This plan includes step-by-step actions to address brand rights issues within the company. It helps in budgeting, scheduling, and delegating tasks according to the company's available resources. 

The preparation of the brand right strategy and the action plan is a small investment compared to the long-term benefits, typically costing between 3,000 and 7,000 euros. The last but most crucial phase is the execution of the plan, through which the benefit of the investment is realized as value returned to the company.

Brand rights to flourish

Brand rights and their strategic and business-oriented management are the core areas of expertise at Kaulo & Partners.

Once the brand rights strategy has been drawn up, we are best able to help companies in the cost-effective and value-adding management of their brand rights, regardless of whether it concerns creating new brand rights, protecting them, using them correctly, utilizing them commercially, enforcing them or regularly auditing them.

Ask for more information: 

Jani Kaulo, jani.kaulo@kaulopartners.fi, +358 40 637 5442
Maria Puronvarsi, maria.puronvarsi@kaulopartners.fi, +358 40 669 0527