Bullying. Most decent (quite a pliable term there) people hate bullying. I mean, it’s just plain nasty. I don’t know about you, but, when I think of bullying, my mind goes immediately to school days, where it’s rampant. Even more so than teachers ever care to recognise. However, if we’re honest, we’ve all probably bullied at some stage or other. We’ve maybe never beat someone up because they have a shy, introverted, and apparently ’strange’ nature, or because their skin was a different colour. But, maybe in some other way, as we try to get what we want.

As we get older, bullying splits off into many different subdivisions from the school days of name calling, and fighting. It becomes more manipulative, and is carried out with a little more subtlety and ‘finesse’.

Some of the worst, are those who have been used to getting what they want all the time. Let me narrow this down even more — those who are in business. They’ve maybe owned a majority share in a particular market, doing as they want and please. Eventually, however, competition from small-timers comes along, and ‘Mr. Big’ tries to push them around, and limit them in how they can market their business, products, or services.

Examples…

Now, in some ways it may be necessary. For example, if I was to set up a business selling mobile phones, and used the slogan “Connecting people“, I’d have Nokia after me before I even sold my first phone, and rightly so! There would be absolutely no excuse for me to use that slogan, and Nokia have branded that slogan so heavily, that as soon as you hear it, you think, ‘Nokia’.

But let’s think of a different scenario. How about Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It“? Now I find this particular slogan interesting, because, it uses a phrase which particular fields use all the time, like self-help and motivational books or articles — just do it. Now because this is the case, companies and individuals, can not actually Copyright words and short phrases like “Just Do It”, otherwise they could Copyright the whole dictionary, and file lawsuits against anyone who would use the word in any way. What they can do is trademark the term, so that, other businesses can not use the term to market a similar product. This stops any marketing confusion for the consumer.

But, it’s not that simple

If a company decides to try and trademark a commonly used phrase (like Nikes ‘Just Do It’), several items must be taken into consideration before it’s granted, (because such a phrase could easily be seen as, “devoid of any distinctive character” according to Section 3 of the Trade Marks Act 1994);

• the market share held by the mark;
• how intensive, geographically widespread and long-standing use of the mark has been;
• the amount invested by the undertaking in promoting the mark;
• the proportion of the relevant class of persons who, because of the mark, identify goods as originating from a particular undertaking; and
• statements from chambers of commerce and industry or other trade and professional associations.

After looking at these points, the applicable Court of Justice will rule whether or not the company can trademark the phrase, which, in the case of Nike, has been done (I assume) successfully. But, they can’t stop people writing, and using the term “just do it”.

Why am I writing this?

Well, I’ve recently had to look into this, because, someone I know is being bullied into dropping a certain phrase from their website. Now, if this phrase was, “Exceedingly good cakes” or something distinctive like that, then I’d advise to back down and drop it. However, the phrase would be more like me trying to trademark, “Ask the web designer“.

I’m not being funny, but, I find it difficult to take this ‘big bully’ seriously. They are trying to say that a term like ‘ask the web designer’ was coined by them, and that no other person is allowed to use it, because, it is encroaching on their ‘brand’.

I’m not a solicitor, but, I’ve been doing my research (as you can see), and even if this ‘big bully’ (who will remain anonymous) has been on the web for over ten years, using a particular common phrase to market their services, as far as I can see, they don’t have a leg to stand on in their effort to stop every other individual using it. If they had the full trademark of the phrase, (which they currently don’t), then the most they could do, would be to stop others from ‘branding’ their services with the phrase. But, they couldn’t stop them from using it in their articles.

Conclusion

If this get’s interesting, I might keep you up-to-date on the proceedings. However, for now, learn this. If you want to market a product or service with a slogan, either,

i) Invest millions in branding a commonly used phrase, in order to make people think of your product as soon as they see the phrase.

ii) Or, just choose something completely original, i.e The Power of Dreams.