Seattle Trademark Lawyer

It’s that time of year again…. Time for the Interbrand rankings of the Best Global Brands, which BusinessWeek published yesterday. (BusinessWeek article here; Interbrand analysis here.) Three Seattle companies cracked the top 100: Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Starbucks. Each maintained its position from last year or climbed a bit higher on the list. Microsoft ranked second, same as last year; Amazon.com rose three spots to 65, and Starbucks likewise advanced three spots to 88.

Here’s what the the BusinessWeek story says about Seattle’s big brands:

• Microsoft (2007 brand value listed at $58,709,000,000): “The launch of its Windows Vista operating system, coupled with its Xbox game console, keeps the software giant’s latest technology in front of consumers.”)
• Amazon.com (2007 brand value listed at $5,411,000,000): “Finally viewed by consumers as the superstore it always tried to be, Amazon is adding cool, participatory Web services that may enhance its brand image.”
• Starbucks (2007 brand value listed at $3,631,000,000): “With 2,400 new stores opening globally in 2007, Starbucks continues to make itself the world’s ubiquitous coffee shop.”

To qualify for the list, “each brand  must derive at least a third of its earnings outside of its home country, be recognizable outside of its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data.” Interbrand also excluded portfolios of brands like Procter & Gamble, airlines because it deemed it too difficult to separate brand from nonbrand value, and pharmaceutical brands because it found consumers relate primarily to the product rather than the producer.

The Canadian Trademark Blog, which tipped me off that the list was out, discusses how Canadian brands fared here.