Beyond the master brand: Building an IP strategy that supports brand expansion

Luxury and beauty brands rarely stand still. A successful master brand may expand into new product categories, launch capsule collections, collaborate with other businesses and create campaign identities that acquire commercial value of their own. 

Yet the IP strategy may still reflect how the business looked several years earlier.

That gap matters. Protection secured for the original brand and its core products will not necessarily cover every new name, category or market the business moves into. Nor will it always resolve questions about who owns the assets created through a collaboration.

The challenge is not to register everything. It is to identify which parts of the expanding brand have genuine commercial importance and ensure that the IP strategy develops with the business.

How brand architecture develops #

Brand architecture can become more complex gradually, often as a natural consequence of successful commercial activity.

A beauty brand may move from cosmetics into skincare, fragrance or wellness. A fashion brand may introduce new product lines, limited-edition collections or collaborations with designers and other businesses. An established brand may extend into hospitality, homewares, events or other experiences that take it beyond its original category.

Alongside those more permanent extensions, marketing teams may create campaign names, collaboration identities, and other named assets that begin life as part of a particular launch but go on to gain recognition or commercial value of their own.

As the brand evolves, new elements of the business may raise different questions around names, classes, territories and ownership, even when the original protection remains appropriate for the core brand.

Supporting new products and categories #

Moving into a new category can be an important part of a brand's growth strategy, particularly where the existing brand has the recognition and reputation to support expansion into complementary products or services.

From an IP perspective, however, the protection put in place for the original business does not automatically extend to everything the brand may choose to do in future. A portfolio built around a single set of products or services may need to evolve as its commercial footprint broadens.

Considering IP alongside plans for category expansion can therefore help businesses make more informed decisions about where additional protection may be appropriate, while also ensuring that filing activity remains proportionate to the commercial importance of the opportunity.

The aim is not to register every possible use of a brand in anticipation of growth that may never happen. It is to understand where the business is genuinely heading and make deliberate decisions about how the IP portfolio should support those plans.

Collaborations create their own IP considerations #

Collaborations have become an increasingly visible part of how luxury and beauty brands reach new audiences and create new commercial opportunities, whether through capsule collections, designer partnerships, retailer exclusives or collaborations that take a brand into an entirely different sector.

These arrangements can create new names, logos, packaging, and other co-branded assets, so ownership, protection and permitted use should be considered from the outset and addressed in the collaboration agreement.

Questions such as who owns a co-branded mark, who is responsible for filing it, how each party can use it and what happens when the collaboration ends should be decided at an early stage. This provides greater clarity for both parties and supports a more consistent approach as collaborations become a recurring part of the brand's growth strategy.  

For businesses that regularly undertake collaborations, it may also be useful to establish a framework that can be applied to future partnerships, rather than approaching the IP position from scratch each time.

Not every brand asset starts out as a brand #

Some of the most interesting elements of a brand portfolio may begin life in marketing rather than as part of a formal brand strategy.

A campaign name created for a particular season, launch or activation may later be reused, become associated with a product range or develop recognition of its own. Similarly, a limited-edition or capsule name may prove more commercially significant than initially expected.

Not every marketing phrase or campaign will warrant trade mark protection, but legal, marketing and commercial teams can benefit from recognising when a name or asset is becoming commercially important.

Bringing those conversations into the planning process can make it easier to identify commercially significant assets earlier and decide which are worth protecting.

Looking at the brand as a whole #

As products, sub-brands, collaborations and extensions increase, maintaining a clear picture of the overall brand becomes increasingly important.

Rather than looking at individual registrations in isolation, businesses can consider how the different elements of the brand relate to one another, where each is being used, what protection is already in place and what future activity is planned.

This can help distinguish between areas where existing protection remains appropriate and those where the commercial importance of a name, category or partnership has changed. It can also help ensure that ownership remains clear as new entities and commercial partners become involved.

This should be an ongoing process, revisited as significant launches and commercial decisions are made, rather than a one-off review.

Building IP into brand growth #

A more complex brand architecture does not necessarily require a larger portfolio or more filings. The priority is to identify the brands and other assets that matter commercially and make deliberate decisions about where IP protection supports the direction of the business.

By considering IP at an early stage when planning new categories, collaborations, and brand extensions, businesses can ensure that their portfolios support not only the master brand but also the wider business as it develops.

If your brand has expanded into new categories, collaborations or campaign identities, it may be time to review whether your IP portfolio still reflects the business. Murgitroyd's trade mark attorneys work with luxury and beauty brands to identify gaps, clarify priorities and develop IP strategies that support future growth. Speak to our team about reviewing your portfolio.