Fluid trademarks: keeping them watertight
Even if the term isn’t familiar, the chances are you’ve already seen a fluid trademark.
Used to great effect by brands such as Google and Absolut, as well as UK broadcaster Channel 4, fluid trademarks are those presented in an unconventional way. An old logo may be recast in different colours, given some movement or merged with different images to make it more suited to the digital world.
For example, visit Google’s homepage on any day and you’re likely to see a reinterpretation of the standard Google logo, or what has been dubbed a ‘Google doodle’.
Fluid trademarks invite interaction, and can transform a brand’s engagement with a customer into a two-way relationship. But while they offer a way for established brands to refresh or update their marks, they also present a trade-off between brand dynamism and integrity.
A marketing tool
“The fluid trademark is an excellent marketing tool, to some extent even more so than a trademark,” says Flip Petillion, a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP in Brussels.
“It can be very useful because it brings your core trademark to people’s attention in a total different way. It is even more useful if you have several fluid versions that are released at regular intervals or at some special occasions.”
Once a brand has established itself in the world and is sufficiently recognisable, it can afford to push the trademark’s boundaries and play with it in different ways.
