"Don't Say Velcro" - Creative Trademark Enforcement

Velcro Companies, creators of the original VELCRO® brand hook and loop fasteners, recently won a major jury verdict against YKK Corporation in a patent case from the Middle District of Georgia. It was the first patent jury verdict in the district since 2001, according to a press release from Velcro Companies' counsel Fish & Richardson.

Velcro Companies have also been busy in other intellectual property matters. As an alternative to enforcing its trademark using humorless cease-and-desist letters or information campaigns, the company's legal and brand marketing departments came up with a creative multimedia campaign titled, "Don't Say Velcro." The campaign seeks to reinforce the difference between VELCRO® (the trademark) and hook and loop fasteners (the product). 

The campaign is anchored by, of all things, a YouTube video that has gotten over a half-million views. Described by a lawyer from a firm that represents Velcro Companies as a "We-Are-The-World-style music video in which a bunch of company 'lawyers' dramatically implore the viewer to call hook and loop fasteners by their correct generic name, and to only use the VELCRO® mark when referring to products manufactured and licensed by the Velcro Companies." (Joshua Jarvis, Creative Trademark Enforcement Part I: Velcro Companies Aim to Sing You Into Submission, Trademark and Company Law Blog, (December 6, 2017), http://www.trademarkandcopyrightlawblog.com/2017/12/creative-trademark-enforcement-part-i-velcro-companies-aim-to-sing-you-into-submission/)