WHAT DOES A BRAND NAME AND A LABEL HAVE TO DO WITH THE LAW ?.

  By BarefootLawyers.

Ssekabanja started making shoes two years ago because no shop could make a shoe that could fit him. While at a party he met another bigfooted person who asked him where he imported his shoe from. This gave Ssekabanja the idea to start an actual shoe company. The rest is history. His company is now big. He sells the best bigfoot shoes at the lowest prices, but he has still failed to get a ‘really’ good name for the shoes that he sells. 

Last month, someone suggested that Ssekabanja should start making shoe polish too. This was also an instant success Afterall, it kept the shoes shinning longer and was 3 times cheaper than all the other types. He then shared some shoe polish samples for the people in uptown Kampala, but no one bought the shoe polish ‘mbu’ for them they use ‘labels’ and ‘brands.

 

WHY ARE LABELS AND BRAND NAMES IMPORTANT?

Labels or brand names are usually those words, symbols or phrase that help people to know that a certain product is from a specific company. For example, you know that Fanta is a type of soda from the Coca-Cola company. You also know that Harrier is made by Toyota. If you found a Harrier made by Mercedes Benz, you would not trust it.

So, a label, helps you as a customer to identify the product. It also helps the company to protect their products so no one can use them to sell products that are not theirs.

In the law, these labels, tags, or brand names are called trademarks. This is because the product goes by that name when it is being traded or sold. This trademark is what the law protects as property belonging to the maker of the product.

So, what Ssekabanja has is a product without a name that the law can protect. He cannot just call it shoe polish, but he must give it a unique name or symbol; that will allow people to know that the shoe polish they are using belongs to him.

This will not only ensure that his customers remain loyal to his ‘brand’ and ‘label’, but it will also give him a chance to go to the law to make sure they protect his new shoe polish.

📷: Unsplash