I saw a book "The 22 Laws of Branding", which gives the basic rules for creating a brand. The 18th law is the law of national borders: brand globalization exists without barriers. It must be clear that brands have no national borders.

It seems reasonable. Many brands start from one country and go global. There is almost no need to give examples, everyone can name a long list.

However, on the road to becoming borderless, brands must rely on trademarks with national borders to protect them. The ?IPAD? tablet computer has been known all over the world since the day it was released, but its trademark lawsuit has been very lively. The reason is that the registrant of the ?IPAD? trademark is not Apple.

For consumers, no matter where they buy an IPAD tablet from the United States, the United Kingdom, or South Africa, they think it is the same brand. But for Apple, if it doesn’t own the IPAD trademark, it won’t be able to sell it at all. Although IPAD is an undisputed brand without borders.

As a company that distributes products around the world, Apple certainly knows how to register trademarks in various countries and regions around the world. In fact, the "IPAD" case also reflects Apple's emphasis on trademark registration, but it is just a bit confusing. Due to the looseness of the contract, it led to a series of subsequent lawsuits and huge expenses.

This also shows that although the trademark and the brand are the same logo, there are still differences since they have different names. Brands only need to identify whose "children" they belong to, and they don't need a passport to travel around the world. But trademarks need to identify which country they belong to. "Citizens", and you need a household registration to survive in your country.

Because brand is more of a usage concept, the usage of a product or service is basically the same, so it can be used worldwide. However, trademark is a rights-level concept, and rights cannot be shared and must be determined individually.

The boundaries of rights are usually the same as national boundaries, and trademark rights are no exception. If a trademark wants to obtain exclusive rights and be protected by law, it must be registered in accordance with the Trademark Law. Of course, the same is true in the United States.

In a legal sense, even if it is a big international brand, as long as it has not been used, there is no protection issue. This is the reason why many foreign big names have been rushed to register. What needs to be emphasized is that big names from other countries and foreign countries are also being snapped up.

It is worth noting that this "squatting" is not necessarily illegal, although it is definitely unethical. "Robbing" must have a goal. If something does not exist at all, it cannot be said to be "grabbing".

In fact, behind every truly big brand without borders, there is a stack of trademark registration certificates as support.

There are also many big borderless brands in our country. New brands such as Xiaomi mobile phones made their debut in August 2011 and have now been exported to several countries. Becoming a borderless brand is the dream of many ambitious entrepreneurs.

The correct order to realize the dream is to first register the trademark outside the national borders, and then let the brand go beyond the borders. If the order is reversed, you may encounter a lot of troubles, even for the extremely powerful Apple.

Therefore, only after we have a trademark with national borders can we have a brand without borders.