The Hidden Value of Design Rights: Arsenal Know the Score

What's the point of a rebrand asides from marketing chat about 'eyeballs' and 'brand value'.

It took me years to get this.

An early memory of a rebrand I actually cared about was Arsenal's change of badge in 2002.

From the acclaimed 'Victoria Concordia Crescit' to a simpler shield like badge with alien blue tones running through and the cannon the wrong way round.

I was not a fan.

I put some of this dislike down to nostalgia as it signalled an era of decline in the club's success post 2004.

But primarily my aversion back then was that I thought it was a cynical commercial move to sell more shirts.

We all know that Arsenal have become fashion's favourite club...

Design Rights v Trade Marks

But that was only a side-effect to the main reason.

At the time, Arsenal were embroiled in a lengthy and costly legal case over replica scarves known as Arsenal v Reed.

Although they won on appeal, many previous decisions had gone the other way, and the case exposed the weakness of businesses relying solely on trade marks in their IP portfolio for brand protection.

The real motivation of the rebrand was to create a badge of sufficient novelty to benefit from design rights as well as trade marks.

Design rights must be made within 12 months of first being made to available to the public.

Which meant out with the old badge of 53 years, and in with the new design.

The advantages of design right protection over trade marks are:

• low cost and quick to register
• no lengthy review by the registry
• not tied to class of goods or services
• Continuous use of the design is not necessary

Design rights are often overlooked by businesses looking to add value and protection to their IP, particularly visual assets and products both digital and analog.

Arsenal's rebrand is a reminder that behind every seemingly superficial design change, there's often a deeper legal or commercial rationale at play.

Arsenal learnt the hard way.