News & Insights

All social media at the moment is ranting and raving about the new Barbie movie. It started as a kids doll in 1959 and now it’s a mainstream Hollywood film and Mattel, the American company which created Barbie is worth billions of pounds. It has certainly evolved over time and the foundation of this successful strategy lies in its strong intellectual property portfolio benefiting from its distinctive brand identity including the colour pink its name, logo and slogan.

Barbie has built up its intellectual property portfolio which includes trade marks, designs, patents, and copyright protection. Some of the key successes include:

• The first Barbie logo was registered in 1959 which has changed five times before Mattel reverted back to the original in 2009.
• 23 registered trade marks in the EU and over 30 in the UK which consists of Barbie’s name and a variation of the logo. Barbie’s boyfriend Ken is also protected as a trade mark.
• The shade of pink associated with Barbie is protected as a colour in the US.
• Barbie products have patent and industrial design protection. The first Barbie patent in 1961 related to a “doll construction” as when first created, Barbie was unable to stand upright without support, but now Barbie’s feet have been flattened and this change has been protected by way of patent and industrial design protection.
• As part of the release of the Barbie movie, Mattel has entered into over 100 licensing deals allowing licensees to sell products and services using Barbie branding to include an O.P.I Barbie nail polish, Gap’s Barbie apparel, Crocs, NYX cosmetics, a Burger King pink sauce, pink Xbox controllers and UNO cards. Barbie is everywhere!

Come on Barbie lets go party! This strong intellectual property portfolio means you have a lot to be celebrating!

Barbie shows how valuable intellectual property can be to a business and if you want to know more about this, then please contact one of our Intellectual Property experts today.