The value and the power of trademarks: market trends

Abstract

The text discusses trademark law and the function of the distinctive sign in relation to a given product or service, seeking to facilitate the understanding of how some trademarks become world-famous and others do not. It recovers the historical formation of the trademark from the end of the Middle Ages, when the use of the sign identified the origin of the products of the craft guilds, and compares it with the regime of Law No. 9,279/96, which abandons the former categories of industrial and commercial marks and instead addresses product or service marks, certification marks, collective marks, marks of high renown and well-known marks (Articles 125 and 126). It discusses the power of trademarks over consumer perception, the factors weighing on the purchase decision, the distinction between trademark and logo, and the cases in which the sign comes to designate the product itself. It holds that a trademark's permanence in the market depends on continuous promotional work and on consistency among the values, culture and personality it aggregates, and that strategic errors are enough to deprive it of consumer preference.