Investigate authorized brands in detail before signing the contract.
Before signing the contract, the current owners of related trademarks (including Chinese trademarks, English trademarks and graphic combination trademarks), images and patents under the authorized brand should be confirmed, and it is best to sign the contract directly with all the owners. If you sign a contract with an agency, you must check its legal agency authorization documents to confirm whether the licensor has legal and complete authorization qualifications.
In addition, we should pay attention to whether the authorized brand has rights, whether the authorization will infringe on the rights and interests of other third parties, and whether the official documents of relevant rights, such as trademark registration certificate and patent certificate, have been obtained. (2)
Tips for choosing authorized brands.
Many authorized brands do not intend to operate under brand authorization in their brand heyday, but passively seek innovation and breakthrough of business model when the industry situation is declining, with the intention of upgrading brands and earning authorized profits by integrating resources through brand authorization. The most typical example is that in recent years, some brands in the thermal underwear industry have begun to pay attention to the business model of brand authorization. Therefore, it is best to choose a strong brand with real influence, or a brand that is on the rise, and choose a brand that can invest a lot of advertising expenses every year to maintain its image.
Naturally, when choosing a brand, the correlation between the authorized brand and the product category it intends to operate is also a factor that must be considered. For example, a down jacket enterprise in Changshu chose the thermal underwear brand "Arctic velvet" when choosing an authorized brand. In addition to Arctic velvet is a well-known trademark in China, the main business of Arctic velvet brand is thermal underwear, which belongs to the thermal industry with down jacket. There is a word "velvet" in the brand, which is highly related to down jacket brand. (3)
Other brands are rewarded with fringe benefits.
During the negotiation, if the clothing dealer can get the image authorization of the brand spokesperson on the authorized products at the same time, it will definitely bring benefits to investment promotion and sales. However, some brand honors that have been obtained before the authorized brand should be distinguished and fully utilized and publicized without violating relevant national laws and regulations. In practice, it should be noted that China's well-known trademark is a legal recognition, not an honor, and it is often limited to a certain type of products of authorized brands. If used blindly, it will easily lead to complaints and administrative penalties. (4)
Completeness and perfection of authorization documents.
After signing the brand authorization, both parties shall require the licensor to provide complete authorization documents and relevant certification materials. In order to prevent authorized products from being regarded as counterfeit products by consumers as soon as they enter the market, or being investigated and dealt with by the administrative department for industry and commerce. At present, the brand authorization of clothing industry is mainly embodied in the form of trademark license, so it should be filed with the administrative department for industry and commerce or the State Trademark Office according to the Trademark Law. (5)
High-profile publicity into the market.
It is an important event for clothing dealers to expand or transform their business by obtaining the authorization of strong brands and forming alliances with well-known brands. Therefore, we must invite the brand licensor to cooperate and publicize this cooperation in various media, which will help to enhance our corporate image and promote the investment of authorized products. (6)
Think first, not bad.
Clothing dealers get brand authorization, that is, from product sellers to brand operators, which tests the resource integration ability of clothing dealers. For clothing dealers, who have been living in the downstream of the clothing industry chain, their brand marketing operation ability may be relatively poor and their professionalism is insufficient. After the authorized brand is put on the market, on the one hand, it should pay attention to brand promotion, on the other hand, it is eager to recover the cost, which is easy to lose sight of one thing and even lose the core competitiveness of the original sales channel. Since you have chosen brand authorization, you should devote yourself to making profits, instead of considering that the brand is not your own from the beginning. Make money if you can. Quit if you can't make money in the second year, thanks for the one-year licensing fee. (7)
Don't be rich.
You don't have to have a strong brand to succeed. In business, you also need to equip a brand-conscious management team, build an excellent marketing network, develop innovative and fashionable product styles, organize the supply of goods, ensure excellent product quality, and be familiar with the professional rules of brand authorization. If you have the mentality of getting rich overnight, and you want to combine with a strong brand after being authorized, it will automatically bring you rolling wealth, and in the end it will only be daydreaming. (8)
Beware of excessive authorization by the brand licensor.
The business model of brand licensing determines that the licensor will pursue the maximization of licensing fee income. Some brands tend to overdraw their brands, authorize too much and abuse too much, or use the defects of contracts to repeatedly authorize, which is easy to cause conflicts of interest in the market. Therefore, it is necessary to dynamically track the authorization behavior of the licensor, be familiar with professional rules, and know how to safeguard their own rights and interests. (9)
Counterfeiting and safeguarding rights is a normal job.
Brands authorized by brands are often the key targets of unfair competition violations in some industries, especially in some international brands. Many enterprises that spend huge sums of money to obtain authorization from formal channels often fall on the infringement before opening up the situation to achieve profitability. Therefore, from the very beginning, we should be aware of the arduousness of counterfeiting and rights protection, ask the authorized party to cooperate and support, and take technical, management, publicity, counterfeiting and other means to protect the brand's intellectual property rights from infringement. ( 10)
Make up for the shortage of R&D and production.
Some clothing dealers can only do wholesale, not channel. Some clothing dealers have the ability to develop channels, but there are shortcomings in R&D and production. Therefore, clothing dealers become qualified licensees. Don't neglect the equipment of product R&D team and in-depth understanding of production links.