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Coca‐Cola brand protection before World War II – it's the real thing!

Coca‐Cola brand protection before World War II – it's the real thing! Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the early brand protection efforts of Coca‐Cola. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the hundreds of trademark infringement challenges brought by Coca‐Cola in courts and before the US Patent and Trademark Office and develops a tripartite system of categorizing these challenges by primary legal issue. Findings – Coca‐Cola developed several innovations in brand identity protection including challenges to a wide variety of similar names, logos and packaging, the use of detectives in service settings and the use of consumer psychological evidence in legal proceedings. Ultimately, it protected it name against those rivals that closely imitated both words in its name or words similar to Coca or Coke. However, it was unable to obtain exclusive rights to the word cola which became the generic designation for such drinks. Practical implications – Even today, the scope of Coca‐Cola's brand protection efforts provide a useful model for modern brands. This work also presents and summarizes important historical data. Originality/value – This study examines Coca‐Cola's brand protection efforts and legal challenges in much greater detail than previous historical works on Coca‐Cola. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Historical Research in Marketing Emerald Publishing

Coca‐Cola brand protection before World War II – it's the real thing!

Ross D. Petty
Journal of Historical Research in Marketing , Volume 4 (2): 21 – Apr 27, 2012
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References (5)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1755-750X
DOI
10.1108/17557501211224430
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the early brand protection efforts of Coca‐Cola. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the hundreds of trademark infringement challenges brought by Coca‐Cola in courts and before the US Patent and Trademark Office and develops a tripartite system of categorizing these challenges by primary legal issue. Findings – Coca‐Cola developed several innovations in brand identity protection including challenges to a wide variety of similar names, logos and packaging, the use of detectives in service settings and the use of consumer psychological evidence in legal proceedings. Ultimately, it protected it name against those rivals that closely imitated both words in its name or words similar to Coca or Coke. However, it was unable to obtain exclusive rights to the word cola which became the generic designation for such drinks. Practical implications – Even today, the scope of Coca‐Cola's brand protection efforts provide a useful model for modern brands. This work also presents and summarizes important historical data. Originality/value – This study examines Coca‐Cola's brand protection efforts and legal challenges in much greater detail than previous historical works on Coca‐Cola.

Journal

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing – Emerald Publishing

Published: Apr 27, 2012

Keywords: Coca‐Cola; Trade marks; Brand protection; Brands

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