IS YOUR TRADEMARK WORTH "ZERO POINT"?
We help you understand the value of your trademark with a dispute-proof legal opinion
If one legal opinion on trademark value were as good as another, it would be a fairy tale, don’t you think? Everyone would give his mark the value that best suits him. And I tell you this despite being aware that the valuation of a corporate asset such as the mark is based on esteem values.
In any case, it is possible to calculate a value as close to the real one as possible that protects against disputes, only if you know how to do it.
“Il fisco”- an Italian term that derives from the Latin fiscus, “wicker container”, which later became the emperor’s public purse – today is the body that collects state revenue, it can object to the value of the trademark if, for example, you have established too high a value for the license on the use of the same or for a capital increase of the company for the contribution of the mark.
Conversely, a bank to which you have applied for credit may have given your mark, that you offer as a guarantee, a too low value. The calculation of the monetary value of a trademark cannot be done without carrying out the key steps that allow it to have a quotation that protects as much as possible from objections.
Whatever quotation you give to your distinctive sign, it could be too low or too high, if you are not able to explain exactly how you arrived at that value. In other words, you must be able to justify the monetary amount attributed to the trademark.
So, if you want to know what are the simple but fundamental steps to arrive at a justifiable assessment of your asset, download your free guide here.
By reading my guide, you will become aware of the factors that influence the value of the mark.
You will also understand how to behave in the event that the trademark to be evaluated is just one of the many used by its owner.
To understand better, let’s take the case of having to quote two wine trademarks which consist of the words “Solitisolchi” and “Entè”. These are different distinctive signs because they come from different grapes.
These wines are produced and sold by “Terre delle Menti s.r.l.”
What should the person who has to establish the value of Entè do? And above all, how should he behave in the event that Terre delle Menti wine company, in addition to producing wine and bottling it with its marks, works on behalf of customers who ask it to bottle with their trademarks, i.e. offers the service of bottling and labelling for a fee?
How should the valuer behave if the trademarks Solitisolchi, Entè and Terre delle Menti are not all registered?
You will understand that making a trademark evaluation in a similar situation becomes a problem given the presence of multiple distinctive signs capable of distinguishing various different types of products and services.
If you want to know how to act in such a situation you can download your free guide.
If you want to know how much your trademark is worth, you also need to ascertain if and how it has been protected. And this is something that only very few evaluators do. If you have recently approached this matter, you must know that even used trademarks can have – under certain conditions – a value. In this case, they would be “de facto trademarks” (recognized only in some countries such as Italy), for which it is not easy to establish a value, because it is not easy to demonstrate the protection they enjoy.
In the case of registered trademarks, we know that each registration obtained corresponds to a registration number, the indication of one or more products or services; as well as territories of protection (State or aggregation of States).
Be careful, because you could come across an apparent protection: as a registered trademark does not necessarily mean that it was registrable when you applied for registration.
The more numerous are the declinations of the same trademark (verbal, figurative, complex) and the levels of protection it enjoys, the greater is the risk that they are affected by various problems.
In fact, some legal-administrative issues concerning the history of the distinctive sign, of which you may not know or remember anything, may have affected its protection.
Going back to our example, how much would your Enté wine trademark be worth, if it had been affected by disputes concluded with settlement agreements but which have given rise to limitations on the scope of protection? In case Enté enjoyed protection of other countries, how would you find out?
Therefore, before accounting for the value of the mark, you need to know how to investigate it and the facts about it.
If you want to know more about this procedure, download the free guide.
Finally, once the trademark has been identified and considered from an administrative-legal point of view, the valuer will have to choose the most appropriate evaluation method.
Understanding which trademark evaluation methods are made available to an evaluator and how to choose them becomes a matter of fundamental importance. Knowing how these methods work, so as to consider the pros and cons, can determine the success or failure of the assessment.
If you want to know more about
Why give value to the trademark?
In 1985 Giacomo Costa S.p.A. (later to become Costa Crociere S.p.A.), a company active in various economic sectors including oil, in the face of operating losses (about 14 billion lire) accrued in some sectors, decided to sell to Unilever the brands “Oio” and “Dante”, together with the production plant, at a price of 36 billion lire.
Subsequently, in 1997, the Costa family and other investors sold for 455 billion lire to Carnival Corporation & Plc, the largest cruise ship group in the world, the majority stake in Costa Crociere S.p.A.
This case demonstrates that the protected trademark, if in the meantime has also become famous, can be used to avoid the bankruptcy of a company, even if it is poorly managed and, over time, generate more value.
The Dante, Oio and Costa Crociere brands, more than thirty years after the first sales, continue to produce revenues today.
If you need a trademark evaluation because you want to licence it, sell it, give it to your company, give it as a guarantee for a loan, etc. we can tell you what it’s worth.
Therefore, ask us for a legal opinion,
