What’s in a name? 🤔
A lot, it seems, when said name is used informally to denote something that is the most luxurious or the highest quality of its kind. It is the “Rolls-Royce” of XYZ. 🏆
In the year when we were blessed with hits like "You're Still the One" by Shania Twain, "Deeper Underground" by Jamiroquai and "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith ….
Not to mention celebrating the 20th year anniversary of the movie Grease ( 🎶 I got chills, 🎵 they're multiplying 🎶 …), an interesting thing happened, which highlighted the importance of knowing the true owner of a brand.
You see, in 1998, the owners of Rolls-Royce Motors decided to put it up for sale, and two German automotive manufacturers – BMW and Volkswagen (VW), were fighting to buy the prestigious car company.
While BMW was considered to be the favourite to win out as it already provided parts to Rolls-Royce Motors, VW made a higher offer (£90 million more than the rival bid from BMW) and won the support of the shareholders of the seller.
The VW executives must have been patting themselves on the back for what they had managed to achieve, considering they were considered underdogs.
However, there was just one major sticking point (ok, there were a lot of issues in the deal that needed to be resolved) – Rolls-Royce Motors did not own the rights to the Rolls-Royce name, logo, or brand!
These were controlled by Rolls-Royce Plc, the aerospace and defence company.
While “Viva Forever” by The Spice Girls was reigning in the UK charts, the news was dropped that BMW had reached an agreement with Rolls-Royce Plc to licence the Roll-Royce name and logo. BMW paid the less than half what VW outbid it by for Rolls-Royce Motors (£40 million) to be able to use the name and “RR” logo.
To most people, the rights to use name and logo were the most valuable assets in relation to the car company that was put up for sale.
Ok, there is probably a lot more to the story, but the take home is to make sure that the rights to a brand or name, or other valuable asset of a company are transferred with the purchase rather than assuming it to be the case.
If not, you might be paying over the odds for what you are really getting.
#intellectualpropertyrights #SMEs #businessgrowth