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Why capturing your intellectual property could decide whether your business
sells at all.
Who gave AI permission to use your brand, image or work? A new consent registry raises urgent questions about ownership, licensing and control.
AI chatbots are now everywhere. They answer customer questions, explain services, help with bookings, recommend products and sometimes make claims about a business. That can be useful. However, it can also be risky.
If your trade mark is challenged for non-use, you may need to prove that the mark has actually been used, by the right entity, for the right goods or services, during the relevant period. That sounds simple. Recent trade mark decisions show it often is not.
Brand impersonation is no longer just a fake Facebook page or a dodgy website using a copied logo. It is now a serious brand, consumer protection and cyber risk.
In 1996, the Spice Girls released Wannabe. Thirty years later, people still know the song, the name, the nicknames, the styling and the message. That kind of staying power does not happen by accident.
If your business reaches customers in the European Union through a website, marketplace, app or AI-enabled service, two EU regimes now demand your attention.
Can you use a famous luxury brand in an artwork or decorative object and call it parody? Sometimes. Can you use that brand to market and sell products? That is much riskier. A recent French decision, Hermès v Le Bidon Français, shows where the line can be drawn.
Changing one letter does not always create a new brand. That is the key lesson from the recent Australian Trade Marks Office decision involving GHOST and GHXST.
