{"id":42381,"date":"2012-10-25T01:29:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T02:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/?p=42381"},"modified":"2021-01-07T18:47:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T17:47:36","slug":"when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trademark and patent protections are vital to brands, but is there a time when too many lawsuits (or threats of lawsuits) over trademark and patent infringements can start to negatively tarnish consumers\u2019 perceptions of a brand and damage the brand? If you look at the history of Apple\u2019s patent suits, the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

Matt Assay of The Register<\/a> shared the graphic below from Verizon (published by Forbes) that depicts the “insane” number of smartphone competitor patent lawsuits. However, from the average consumer\u2019s perspective, most of these lawsuits go unnoticed and don\u2019t affect their perceptions of the brands behind them.<\/p>\n

Click the image to view it at full size.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"smartphone<\/a><\/p>\n

For the average consumer, brands like Apple, Google, and Microsoft dominate the buzz about mobile tech lawsuits with short-term buzz about associated brands like HTC and Samsung popping up occasionally. Consumers hear about the big brands hiring employees to focus on trademark and patent litigation, and a natural progression of human emotion ultimately follows \u2013 when people start to root for the underdog. That\u2019s where smaller tech brands can position themselves to carve chunks out of mobile tech market share.<\/p>\n

When does trademark and patent litigation shift from protecting a company\u2019s assets and brand equity to bullying and arrogance? Fortunately, social media buzz can help brand\u2019s identify reputation shifts, but operating from a position of brand dominance and leadership often leads to brand arrogance<\/a>, a topic I\u2019ve written about before for Corporate Eye.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen brand arrogance hurt brands in the past with Microsoft<\/a> offering one of the best examples, but Apple has been heading down the same path of brand arrogance in recent years. Will consumers\u2019 perceptions of the Apple brand (or other brands heading down a similar path) be so tarnished by perceived arrogance that they\u2019ll turn to another brand? Will Apple (and other brands heading down the same path) recognize the problem and fix it before it\u2019s too late?<\/p>\n

Only time will tell, but demise by brand arrogance isn\u2019t a new phenomenon. What do you think? Which brand do you think is too far down the path of brand arrogance to save itself? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trademark and patent protections are vital to brands, but is there a time when too many lawsuits (or threats of lawsuits) over trademark and patent infringements can start to negatively tarnish consumers\u2019 perceptions of a brand and damage the brand? If you look at the history of Apple\u2019s patent suits, the answer is yes. Matt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[7691,7692,7693,1432,100,7280,7690],"class_list":{"0":"post-42381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brand","8":"tag-apple-patent-lawsuits","9":"tag-brand-arrogance","10":"tag-brand-bullying","11":"tag-brand-protection","12":"tag-brand-strategy","13":"tag-brand-trademarks","14":"tag-patent-litigation","15":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nWhen Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Apple, Google and other smartphone brands have gone lawsuit crazy and it's hurting the brands. Get the details.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Apple, Google and other smartphone brands have gone lawsuit crazy and it's hurting the brands. Get the details.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-25T02:29:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-07T17:47:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"484\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lucy Nixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lucy Nixon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lucy Nixon\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/d273bf7421dc8f5fec96785876b760e2\"},\"headline\":\"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-25T02:29:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-07T17:47:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/\"},\"wordCount\":380,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png\",\"keywords\":[\"apple patent lawsuits\",\"brand arrogance\",\"brand bullying\",\"brand protection\",\"brand strategy\",\"brand trademarks\",\"patent litigation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Brand\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/\",\"name\":\"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-25T02:29:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-07T17:47:36+00:00\",\"description\":\"Apple, Google and other smartphone brands have gone lawsuit crazy and it's hurting the brands. Get the details.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png\",\"width\":640,\"height\":484,\"caption\":\"smartphone patent lawsuits\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\",\"name\":\"Corporate Eye\",\"description\":\"...compare, compete, excel\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Corporate Eye\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png\",\"width\":283,\"height\":42,\"caption\":\"Corporate Eye\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/d273bf7421dc8f5fec96785876b760e2\",\"name\":\"Lucy Nixon\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/538dc739f95aa5a2fd75d054808b18b2afa37a9282a7a8f87001a77dc128d759?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/538dc739f95aa5a2fd75d054808b18b2afa37a9282a7a8f87001a77dc128d759?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lucy Nixon\"},\"description\":\"Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/author\/lucy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand","description":"Apple, Google and other smartphone brands have gone lawsuit crazy and it's hurting the brands. Get the details.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand","og_description":"Apple, Google and other smartphone brands have gone lawsuit crazy and it's hurting the brands. Get the details.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/","og_site_name":"Corporate Eye","article_published_time":"2012-10-25T02:29:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-07T17:47:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":484,"url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Lucy Nixon","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@lucynixon","twitter_site":"@lucynixon","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lucy Nixon","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/"},"author":{"name":"Lucy Nixon","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/d273bf7421dc8f5fec96785876b760e2"},"headline":"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand","datePublished":"2012-10-25T02:29:40+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-07T17:47:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/"},"wordCount":380,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png","keywords":["apple patent lawsuits","brand arrogance","brand bullying","brand protection","brand strategy","brand trademarks","patent litigation"],"articleSection":["Brand"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/","name":"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png","datePublished":"2012-10-25T02:29:40+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-07T17:47:36+00:00","description":"Apple, Google and other smartphone brands have gone lawsuit crazy and it's hurting the brands. Get the details.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/smartphone-patent-lawsuits.png","width":640,"height":484,"caption":"smartphone patent lawsuits"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/when-trademark-and-patent-litigation-damages-a-brand\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When Trademark and Patent Litigation Damages a Brand"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/","name":"Corporate Eye","description":"...compare, compete, excel","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization","name":"Corporate Eye","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png","width":283,"height":42,"caption":"Corporate Eye"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/d273bf7421dc8f5fec96785876b760e2","name":"Lucy Nixon","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/538dc739f95aa5a2fd75d054808b18b2afa37a9282a7a8f87001a77dc128d759?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/538dc739f95aa5a2fd75d054808b18b2afa37a9282a7a8f87001a77dc128d759?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Lucy Nixon"},"description":"Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com","https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon"],"url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/author\/lucy\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Susan Gunelius","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42381"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52822,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42381\/revisions\/52822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}