Trademark dilution is when the distinctiveness and impact of a registered trademark is reduced. This can take many forms, including blurring, tarnishing, and genericization. Laws aim to prevent trademark dilution and protect individual brands. Dilution can undermine consumer confidence and hurt companies. Blurring is when competing companies use a similar brand to market unrelated products, tarnishing is when a brand is associated with an unsavory or poor quality product, and genericization is when a brand becomes a generic term.
In trade mark law, “trademark dilution” refers to a case where the distinctiveness and impact of a registered trade mark is reduced. Brand dilution can take many forms, including blurring, tarnishing, and genericization. Many countries, including the United States, have laws designed to prevent trademark dilution and to provide companies with guidelines to protect their individual brands. Since a brand is a unique and powerful thing, companies take the dilution of their brands very seriously.
Laws addressing trademark dilution focus on two issues. The first is consumer protection. When consumers buy a branded product, they choose it for a particular reason such as perceived corporate responsibility or quality. If a competitor company uses a similar branding with the intent to confuse consumers, this can undermine consumer confidence. Brand dilution also hurts companies by reducing the powerful impact of their brand. Many companies aggressively protect their brands from brand dilution, with some critics arguing that a small number of companies go too far.
When a brand is blurred, competing companies use that brand or a similar one, usually to market unrelated products. For example, a company may specialize in the marketing of car tires. The company’s brand and trademarks are well known, so when consumers see a similarly branded breakfast cereal, they may associate the breakfast cereal with the tire company. This dilutes the tire company’s brand, broadening its associations. In some cases, a competitor company may manufacture a similar product with an alarmingly similar branding or packaging design, confusing consumers and even leading to brand dilution.
When tarnished, a company’s brand may be associated with an unsavory or poor quality product. As a result, consumers develop a negative image of the company concerned. The tarnish problem is often linked to pornography and other explicit art forms, as many companies with a wholesome image don’t want to be associated with adult material. Tarnishing is a slippery slope, as sometimes the use of a trademark is considered parody and cannot be prosecuted in court.
Genericization is the terminal form of brand dilution. Many generic terms such as xerox, zip, hoover, escalator and kleenex were once trademarks for specific products. The parent companies did not realize the danger of allowing consumers to use terms loosely until it was too late. Under these circumstances, a company may be able to pursue limited options, especially if genericization is detected early. However, a company that doesn’t act will lose its brand.
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