Global design protection strategies for brand-essential designs

Abstract: The importance of design in order to accentuate a market position becomes increasingly important in the commercial vehicle sector. As a result, the company leading the pack in terms of design and styling is facing immense imitation from western competitors as well as commercial vehicle manufacturers from emerging markets. In response, the company has adopted a strategy of using design protection of designs considered as essential for the overall design language and the brand. This study’s purpose is to identify the legal and market-based parameters essential for creating strategic guidelines for global design protection applications. The implications of previously mentioned parameters were studied in conjunction with the analysis of the internal process of a design leading company in the commercial vehicle industry to create strategic guidelines for the process of protecting brand-essential designs. In accordance with globalization theory and the company’s internal design protection processes, new strategic guidelines for global design applications for brand-essential designs and important markets for them can be identified. Grounded in the underlying mechanisms and driving forces for design protection for a commercial vehicle manufacturer in a design leader position, a business intelligence tool was created as an efficient mean to implement the new strategic guidelines within the organization. Finally the conclusion is drawn that the design protection of brand-essential designs will serve as an important mean in maintaining the company’s design leader position, not just out of a litigation perspective. By signaling internally and externally exactly what defines the company’s characteristic designs through design protection, an enforcement of unique position will be made. The efficiency of the created guidelines greatly depends on the success of implementation in the company. As long as the required efforts within the organization to promote the concept are made and the necessary substantial tools for implementation are adopted in order to secure the sustainability of the strategic guidelines, the protection of brand-essential designs will remain relevant.