Today’s topic is “tacking” and why you need to have at least some awareness of this important concept in the law of trademark.

Imagine Company A has been using a distinctive and well-known company logo on its product for years. Company A then decides to “refresh” its marketing, including rolling out a shiny, updated logo. Does Company A lose any trademark rights it may have established in the old company logo simply by updating its branding?

That is where “tacking” comes in. This concept allows a trademark owner to “tack on” the period of use of an earlier mark to the owner’s use of a subsequent mark where the “two marks are so similar that consumers generally would regard them as essentially the same.” Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank (9th Cir. 2013) 735 F.3d 1158, 1163-1164, cert. granted, 134 S. Ct. 2842 (2014) and aff’d, 135 S. Ct. 907 (2015); Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank (2015) 135 U.S. Ct. 907, 910 (two marks “may be tacked when the original and revised marks are ‘legal equivalents,’” meaning that the two marks that “‘create the same, continuing commercial impression’ so that consumers ‘consider both as the same mark.’”).

If an owner is allowed to tack on to prior use, updating a trademark (such as a tradename, a product slogan or logo style) does not result in abandonment of or loss of priority in the use of the trademark.

Tacking furthers the policy aims of trademark law because it prevents the loss of valuable trademark rights while still allowing for reasonable innovation in the market. As the Ninth Circuit of Appeals explained in its decision in Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank, a decision recently affirmed by the United States Supreme Court:

“Tacking” is permitted because “[w]ithout tacking, a trademark owner’s priority in his mark would be reduced each time he made the slightest alteration to the mark, which would discourage him from altering the mark in response to changing consumer preferences, evolving aesthetic developments, or new advertising and marketing styles.” … Moreover, “[g]iving the trademark owner the same rights in the new mark as he has in the old helps to protect source-identifying trademarks from appropriation by competitors and thus furthers the trademark law’s objective of reducing the costs that customers incur in shopping and making purchasing decisions.”

Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank, supra, 735 F.3d at 1164, quoting Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corporation (9th Cir.1999) 174 F.3d 1036, 1048.

However, here is the real lesson for the day—the courts have made it abundantly clear that the doctrine of tacking is “exceptionally narrow” and, therefore, you must tread lightly when you endeavor to alter the look or feel of any existing trademarks, especially things like company logos or product slogans. Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corporation, supra, 174 F.3d at 1036, 1047-1048. The standard for tacking has been described as “exceptionally narrow” and “exceedingly strict.” The marks “must create the same, continuing commercial impression” and the later mark should not “materially differ from or alter the character of the mark attempted to be tacked.” Id. at 1048. So when the marketing folks come up with all of those great ideas to jazz up the company branding, make sure to give thought to the impact on trademark rights and confer with trademark counsel if necessary.