Christmas is just around the corner! Everything red and green and sparkly and shiny is starting to run out in all the stores. This is by far the biggest and most important consumer holiday of the year.
Christmas can sometimes make or break a company. One of the most important aspects that you cannot fall short on when starting a company, is a secure and exclusive trademark.
Many companies take it as far as capitalizing on specific holidays to upbring their sales through the roof. If I had to give one recommendation from my experience as a trademark agent, it would be to schedule an official launch around a specific time of the year that will help up-bring sales and impulse customer awareness. We can see this trend occur pretty much every year.
Let’s take for example a big chain store like Walmart; small brands that center their products around a specific time of year take advantage of big retailers to massively impulse sales.
Consider the effect that linking a product to a major holiday could have on the overall results and engagement from a market. It may seem counterintuitive but taking this approach could lead to unexpected benefits. We can see this occur across pretty much every mall, in almost every country, during this time of year.
So, who owns Christmas?
One of the most common tactics that companies use to choose a trademark, a company logo or name, is to center their attention around a specific concept or maybe an obvious word. This is extremely beneficial in most cases, since it makes their product or brand extremely identifiable and summarizes the services that are being provided or offered.
Christmas is one of the most desired words, especially when festivities are around the corner, as it's directly tied to an extremely commercial season. Keep in mind that Christmas is accompanied by the largest sales of the year.
No one has a trademark registered as only “Christmas”. However, many big companies do have the word in their trademark.
So... to answer the question of who owns Christmas? An Enhanced Knockout Search reveals that there are over 2000 live marks containing this word. The top two owners of CHRISTMAS are the British company Shastan Limited (2.4%) whose top brand is CHRISTMAS PIG (class 16 Bookmarks).
In conclusion, it is definitely a great idea to consider naming your brand after a festivity, as you can greatly benefit from associating your products or services with a consumer-friendly occasion. And yes, of course it is possible to use the word “Christmas” in your trademark, but this is where it becomes tricky. We will talk about this in the following paragraph.
Christmas Play On Words
From candle shops to restaurants, there are a variety of options when choosing the right trademark name for your business. It is best to take advantage of holidays that can impulse your sales and help you close your year with an unexpected abundance in revenue.
If you do decide to register a trademark that has a festive spin and don't know where to start, we would definitely suggest following examples from some of the most creative and festive brand names.
Let's take some examples of a few trends that we have come across, which we found very creative and quite fun.
There is a company using “Crystamas,” which is registered for Christmas tree ornaments. It may sound and look a lot like Christmas, but if it is not “Christmas” – or essentially phonetically identical – you can register it even for a product like ornaments.
Also, The Inn at Christmas Place is a unique hotel in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, right in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. It offers room service as well as a heated spa and swimming pool all year round.
These examples have definitely put these companies on the top of search results, phone books and even advertising campaigns. By simply affiliating the name of your company to a commonly searched word, you can take full advantage of the season or festivity in which this falls under.
Something that we would like to mention is that you should always keep in mind that trademarks are territorial. What we mean by this is that it’s very important to identify where you are looking to register your trademark because each country has a different jurisdiction as to what is permitted and what not. And, of course, you need to know if what you are looking to register has already been claimed.
Market Studies for Christmas Trademarks
There have been long lines at stores, record sales online, and the usual December lull — when shoppers typically disappear after Black Friday only to return in the final days before Christmas — hasn’t been as quiet lately due to an uproar in sales when compared to previous years.
For U.S. retailers, last year’s holiday season was a veritable goldmine, with retail merchants experiencing their best-performing season in six years.
Across the globe, the weeks leading up to holidays like Christmas and Ramadan and major events like the World Cup bring a stampede of high-intent shoppers, driving significant increases in e-commerce traffic and conversion rates.
Since the recession in 2008, Christmas holiday retail sales in the United States have grown steadily. In 2018, Christmas retail sales were forecast to grow to about 729.3 billion U.S. dollars; a four percent increase from the previous year. The amount of money that U.S. consumers plan to spend on gifts has fluctuated year to year.
A survey revealed that 41 percent of Millennial U.S. holiday shoppers planned on researching online before visiting a store in 2017. Black Friday is also the day most Millennials plan to begin their holiday shopping; roughly 50 percent according to a Statista survey.
We should definitely take these numbers and statistics into account when we talk about the importance of a trademark name or logo. By simply tying a brand name to a holiday like Christmas, we are pretty much ensuring an excellent opportunity to capitalize on one of the biggest consumer events of the year.
Let us recap the benefits of naming your company after a festivity. Christmas is the most consumer friendly holiday of the year and pretty much resembles the Superbowl of retail and overall sales.
Naming your company after a festivity of this magnitude can lead to a snowball effect in terms of visibility, growth, and end of the year sales. Several companies are already utilizing this strategy, and this has the best outcomes when they focus on services or products that are directly related to this time of the year.
It can be difficult and a little tricky to come to terms with a name that contains a play on the word Christmas, but many companies have managed to find fun and versatile tactics to go around this. We would definitely suggest doing some research yourself. But keep in mind you can always contact us if you would like some more information on this matter.
From iGERENT to you, Merry Chris™as & Happy New Year!
Author: Solange Ramirez, Trademark Consultant @ iGERENT.com
