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-- Dit artikel is onderdeel van NLO's Fortify Magazine en gaat verder in het Engels -- When Brinkers, a family-owned producer of chocolate spreads founded in 1889, wanted to change direction, it turned to Danny Schuwer for help. Both had worked together in the past when Mr. Schuwer was an independent sales rep in the UK. This time, Mr. Schuwer came on board as an advisor for one day a week, but soon joined the Brinkers board full time. The vision was to develop a full line of organic chocolate spreads.

At NLO, we highly value our collaboration with Brinkers, a company that combines innovation with a strong focus on brand integrity. Supporting Brinkers in safeguarding their trademark portfolio allows us to contribute to the protection of their brands, which play a vital role in their growth and market presence

Jeroen Cornelis - Managing partner & Benelux and European trademark and design attorney

This is a teaser of an Fortify article, please read the complete article here.

One issue they faced was that organic products were quite unusual at the time. Consumers, retail chains and suppliers were hardly concerned, so it would require some groundbreaking work to succeed. Secondly, Brinkers produced mostly private-label spreads for others, meaning they had no brands of their own under which to launch their new line of products.

Fast forward to today when Brinkers sells over 25 million jars of chocolate spread in some 65 countries across the world. Around half are sold under one of their own brands, and three quarters are fully organic by now. That's quite an accomplishment because the organic segment in retail is still dominated by private labels.

Our brands grows with the company, and the company grows with our brands

Danny Schuwer - Managing director Brinkers

Key to this success is the establishment of an ever increasing product range and a brand portfolio to match. "Our brands grows with the company, and the company grows with our brands", says Mr. Schuwer. In this interview he talks about the central role brands have in Brinkers' success, how his Spotify playlist gives him inspiration for the development of new brand names, and his unflinching determination when it comes to protecting them.

If you want to lead the field in switching to organic, you probably need your own brands too.

"Definitely. In the early years, retailers were not requesting organic for their private labels. So parallel to the movement towards organic products, we also built up our own trademark portfolio. Much longer ago, we only had our brand Choba, and the rest was private label. Now the ratio is around 50-50. The main brands for us are So Vegan So Fine for supermarkets and La Vida Vegan for specialist organic stores. In the premium segment, we have Chocolate Symphony and Chocolate Rhapsody.

You may have noticed that all our brand names are related to music. No, we don’t use an advertising agency for this. I come up with it myself and take inspiration from my musical past. 'It's my Life' is a song by Bon Jovi, or, for the older generation, by The Animals. I wanted something with 'So Vegan', checked my playlist, and found 'So Fine', by Loggins & Messina."

There can be some tension between product names created by marketing people and what can be protected in trademark law. Have you ever encountered this issue?

"No, not really. Occasionally, I expect a certain name may already be used somewhere, but then it doesn’t prove to be the case. We are careful about that. First, we get NLO to examine whether a brand can be protected, then we register it and only then do we put it on the market. We don’t want to risk being overruled and having to recall products from the market." Even so, a few years ago Brinkers was summoned to withdraw their So Vegan So Fine products from stores. The plaintiff was a Dutch manufacturer of vegetarian food products whose company name bore a slight resemblance to that of the Brinkers brand.

When Jeroen Cornelis started as a trademark attorney at NLO in 1999, Brinkers was one of his first clients, and the company still is. He concluded that Brinkers did not need to respond to the demand. In his view, there was ‘little likelihood of confusion’ between the brands, and the specific products couldn’t be considered ‘sufficiently similar’. Cornelis advised in the dispute, which dragged on for several years. He described Mr. Schuwer’s attitude as "not afraid, and driven by a strong sense of justice.

Our brands grow with the company, and the company grows with our brands.

Danny Schuwer - Director Brinkers

How do you look back at that case?

"I’m glad Jeroen says that. But it’s true - I wasn’t afraid, and there was no reason to be. In all honesty, I felt that the claim and the attitude of the other party were slightly ridiculous: there were far more differences than similarities between our products and names. Nevertheless, it was a long and very frustrating case. But we never once felt we should discontinue our brand, and I mean never. On the contrary! We supported the brand even more, with campaigns on YouTube and other social media, with ads in supermarket magazines, by adding new products to the range. Eventually we received a letter telling us we had one more chance to withdraw our brand. The tenor of our answer was: 'See you in court'. We never heard from them again."

Would you say that your attitude reveals how important trademarks are for Brinkers?

"Absolutely. In the short and certainly in the long term, trademarks are our ultimate lifeline, something that distinguishes us. Trademarks are essential for building up our own position, independent of department stores. For the distribution, that dependence continues, but the consumer decides whether they want to buy our products or not. We therefore invest a lot in publicising our brands and expanding them. If the consumer wants a sustainable chocolate spread, the goal is for them to choose our products. This way, our brands grow with the company, and the company grows with our brands."