THE PROBLEM OF BRAND PROTECTION AS AN OBJECT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN TOURISM

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of protection of the tourist product brand, which should be resolved by national enterprises when entering foreign markets. The contradictions are highlighted that arise in the case of accidental identity of brand elements the of companies resident in different countries. The aim of the article is to develop a methodical approach to the choice of strategy for the promotion of tourism services in foreign markets based on the analysis of formal procedures for ensuring intellectual property rights. The main task is to develop recommendations for Ukrainian travel companies that plan to export their own brand and expand the range of proposals, based on the analysis of the process of trade mark registration and the scope of existing brands in the field of tourism and hospitality in the EU. The study analyses the procedure of trade mark registration in the EU; identifies the peculiarities of brand elements for tourist products and consumer requirements for textual and graphical representation (it is noted that for most goods and services the name can be chosen without descriptive reference, i.e. accurate semantic identification of the product, and in the field of leisure services, a certain set of keywords is commonly used, which significantly narrows the alternatives for presenting a product or a company); examples of lawsuits filed by EU residents for infringement of intellectual property rights and cases of refusal to register a trade mark, the reason for which is the existence of supranational jurisdiction. Using the database of the EU Intellectual Property Office, the composition and structure of issued certificates containing the most common semantic units were analysed (the words "tourism", "travel", "resort", "recreation", "hotel" and "hospitality" were chosen as an example); the keywords "hotel" and "travel" were found to be the most commonly used in the sample, while "tourism" and "hospitality" accounted for less registered trade marks. The register includes, in addition to EU countries, other world states, but their range is still narrow. The need to pre-determine the information field of brand uniqueness before the formal registration procedure is emphasised, namely, the domain names semantic analysis is recommended, both in the product type and geographical scope.