💡Key Insight
- Chanel’s No. 5 branding dilemma illustrates that iconic brands face strategic choices about heritage versus modern consumer relevance when updating trademarks, packaging, or marketing to protect legacy appeal while driving sales.
- High-value luxury brands like No. 5 carefully balance innovation and tradition because changes perceived as diluting brand identity can weaken emotional connection with long-standing customers.
- Such branding dilemmas often occur when trademark enforcement intersects with the need to adapt to digital and global markets, where consistency and recognisability are crucial.
- Brand custodians must also negotiate legal and commercial pressures when evolving brand assets to preserve market positioning without alienating loyal consumers.
Trademarking is always an area of controversy between businesses. It comes as no surprise then that business titans such as Chanel wish to protect their trademark and business image by strictly monitoring the market for potential conflicts with their trademark.
In their latest assault, Chanel has gone after a small chocolate business in Adelaide called Chocolate @ No.5
Here are five things you need to know about the dilemma:
- Alison Peck, owner of Chocolate @ No. 5, was sent a letter by Chanel’s lawyers demanding her to change her business’s branding as Chanel claimed a trademark infringement on its No.5 perfume.
- Chanel’s lawyer’s demanded Alison to withdraw the registration of her business and abandon her logo. They also initially prohibited her from using the digit or the word ‘five.’
- Alison followed the first two requirements and went through the expensive process of trademark registration to meet Chanel’s first two demands. Alison, being a small business owner, had to follow Chanel’s orders or face an expensive lawsuit.
- However, putting a stop to the giant’s numerous demands, Alison negotiated with Chanel to retain the digit “5” as her business is named after its address – 5 Main Street Hahndorf, a village in the Adelaide Hills. Also, her business makes chocolate, not perfume and while both smell delicious, they are two completely different products.
- Alison retains the right to use the “5” as long as her business retains the same address.
This latest dispute is an example of how a Trademark can be used to protect your brand’s mark. To learn more about how you can gain the same protection for your company’s brand, read our guide.
Let us know your thoughts on this David and Goliath trademark battle by tagging us #lawpath or @lawpath.
