May the 4th
be
with you.
May the 4th
be
with you.
from
Every year it comes back: May the 4th be with you. This sentence shows how incredibly successful the Star Wars saga is. The commercial success is based, among other things, on the consistent strategy of protecting everything possible.
Star Wars Tag
Today, the DPMA is also commemorating Star Wars Day and the intellectual property strategy surrounding the star saga created by George Lucas. George Lucas and his company Lucasfilm began very early on with an extensive protection strategy to secure their intellectual property and the resulting income.
Not only trademarks such as “Star Wars” or the names of the main characters such as “Darth Vader”, “Luke Sykwalker” and “Han Solo” were protected under trademark law, but also almost all characters appearing in the Star Wars universe. Other terms such as “Hyperspace”, “Naboo” and “Lightsaber” were also registered as trademarks to protect almost the entire Star Wars vocabulary. The trademarks were registered for goods that are suitable as fan and merchandising articles.
In addition, characters such as “Yoda” and spaceships such as the “X-Wing fighter” were registered as designs in order to secure the market and keep imitators at bay. In total, the Star Wars empire, which now belongs to the Disney Group, comprises several thousand property rights worldwide.
May the 4th be with you
This very extensive strategy of protecting almost everything was rewarded. George Lucas alone is said to have earned almost 20 billion dollars from merchandising.
Even if not every idea and creation can be marketed in the same way as Star Wars, I can also derive insights for a successful trademark and property rights strategy for other companies.
First of all, it helps to focus on new creative trademarks of your own that are not based on familiar ones. Terms such as “C-3PO”, “Chewbacca” and “Jedi Knight” are all freely invented terms that can therefore not only be protected under trademark law without any problems in most cases, but are also likely to have a wide scope of protection.
Furthermore, the extensive filing strategy of trademarks and designs around a unified story shows how to consistently protect against third parties and ensure successful marketing.
Last but not least, the international strategy must also be taken into account, at least if the company’s own goods or services are to be offered in several countries.
Conclusion
The Star Wars franchise shows how effectively trademarks and designs can lead to commercial success. A comprehensive property rights strategy helps you to profit from your own creation in the long term and to monetize it.
In this sense, companies should remember “May the intellectual property be with you”, because intellectual property rights are the real power behind the Star Wars billions.
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