Brand piracy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brand piracy is the act of naming a product in a manner which can result in confusion with other better known brands. It can occur with either partial integration of the name of the better known brand, or simply by changing the spelling of the product's name. The effect is similar to that of phishing, whereby the trust of the customer is gained through association with the brand name version of the product.
In 2006, Chinese state-controlled telecommunications giant, China Unicom Ltd. named their new wireless email service Redberry, stating in their press release that, "the RedBerry name extends the vivid name of BlackBerry that people are already familiar with". The connotation of the name similar to BlackBerry giving the product a greater appeal.
It is similar to other forms of piracy such as copyright infringement and trademark infringement except that it does not necessarily reproduce another product by illegal means, nor does the branding go to the point of infringing upon a trademark. It is in effect an attempt to produce a similar product to a better known one, and benefiting from the association in a manner similar to ambush marketing. This is however different from "trademark squatting".
[edit] References
China's got RedBerry, by Geoffrey York and Simon Avery, The Globe and Mail, April 11, 2006.]
- Brand Protection Recent Cases On Brand "Piracy", October 2004.
- "Brand Piracy," The Concise Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management, Cary Lynn Cooper and Chris Argyris, p.48
