VAYTON Brand Capital - IP Management, Trademark, Domain Name

1. Tax reduction business case

Paco — 2010-08-18T14:30:22Z

A well-known clothing and apparel retail business client is about to launch its brand in more than 16 countries worldwide.

To take advantage of the Luxembourg tax laws, we recommended the client develop the Intellectual Property assets in Luxembourg. This includes the patents, trademarks and domain names. An IP department has been set up in partnership with Vayton Brand Capital which will proactively manage the IP here in Luxembourg. Under this arrangement, the IP assets of the company qualifies for a tax reduction on royalties of up to 80%.

The benefit of the new tax law (article 50bis LIR) is significant. The actual company tax rate in Luxembourg would be 28.59% compared to only 5.72% if the IP is developed and/or managed in Luxembourg.

Euros	IP rights income
Turnover	1000 000
Deductible expenditure	180 000
Gross result before tax break	820 000
Tax break based on article 50bis LIR (80%)	656 000
Net result	164 000
Income tax (28,59%)	46 887€

Based on 1.000.000€ revenues generated by the IP, the company recovers a total of 187.551€ in income with the Luxembourg tax break.

The client selected VAYTON Brand Capital for FOUR very compelling reasons:

1. The Intellectual Property developed in Luxembourg is fully managed by company specialists, thus there are no added administrative and accounting time and cost involved.
2. VAYTON Brand Capital provides a unique IP management dashboard with all trademarks, domain names and patents accessible on one platform.
3. The company benefits from a cadre of experts in domain name registration, trademark and patent creation all based here in Luxembourg.
4. The company has a 5.72% tax on all IP revenues rather than a 28.59% rate.

Domain Name Aftermarket Grows Steadily in Q2, 2010: Sedo Study

Paco — 2010-08-17T13:28:28Z

Offer-Counteroffer sales are the most prominent type of sales, .COM is the most popular top level domain, .DE is the most popular country code domain while .FR domains have the highest average sale value are the highlights from over 11,000 domain names sold through the domain marketplace and monetisation provider, Sedo, according to their latest quarterly report.

In the last quarter 11,146 domain names were sold through Sedo's Marketplace for a total value of US$21,568,780, meaning Sedo's aftermarket continues to show growth compared to the corresponding quarter in 2009, however it is a slight drop when compared to Q1, 2010.

Average sale value across all TLDs however remained fairly static with the average being $1,935. Almost half (46%) of all sales were for .COM domain names while three-quarters (74%) of all gTLD sales were for .COM domains, 12 per cent for .NET names followed by .ORG (7%), .INFO (5%) and .BIZ (2%).

Among ccTLDs, half (49%) of all sales were for .DE domains with CO.UK domains making up 15 per cent of all sales. Next was .ES with four per cent and then .EU, .NL, .AT, .FR, .CH and .US, all with three per cent. Possibly surprisingly was the tenth ranked ccTLD, .IN, with two per cent of all sales.

Offer-Counteroffer sales accounted for 39 per cent of all sales through Sedo according to the report while Fixed Price sales made up 25 per cent and Marketplace Auctions accounted for 22 per cent of sales. Auction Events, Brokerage and External Transfers made up the rest of sales with five, four and five per cent of all sales respectively.

The top sales through Sedo, and the only sales above $200,000, in Q2 were cgm.com ($365,000), software.de (€235,025), kredit.com (€220,000) and monalisa.com ($200,000).

The Sedo marketplace saw new TLDs appearing in the Top 20 like CO.UK, .ME and .TV, which contributed to one of the most well rounded Top 20 lists to date. It is suspected that this new trend may be attributed to the increase in small businesses looking to target more local visitors and to the increase in media coverage surrounding TLDs like .ME and .TV, which work well for marketing and branding strategies.

"While the economy is still emerging from the downturn, Sedo continues to show positive growth, revealing a strong and steady domain market that will help to fuel future economic growth," said Jeremiah Johnston, Chief Operating Officer at Sedo.com. "Companies and individuals across the globe are now looking at domain names as a critical component to the success of their marketing campaigns. With so many easy-to-use tools and options available to our members, Sedo is the perfect choice for anyone looking to invest in a comprehensive domain name strategy."

The TLD with the highest average sale price continues to be .FR. Average price plummeted to $2,466 from $11,382 in Q1, but the Q1 figure was exaggerated by the sale of credit.fr for €587,500 in Q1. Next was .COM with an average sale price of $2,401 then .DE ($1,999), .ES ($1,725) .NET ($1,673) and .AT ($1,383).

Median sales price is slightly different, and while the median sales values are only provided for five gTLDs, it shows that .NET leads here with a median value for each domain name of $581 followed by .ORG ($530) and .COM ($510). Median sales, as Sedo explains, can give a better guide to the value of TLDs as large sales can skew the average sale price as is the case with .FR in the previous quarter. The median price is where there are the same number of domain names sold above and below the value given.

Another point made in the report were the most popular categories of sales. There are over 2000 categories within the Sedo Marketplace and the most popular are software, regions, countries and cities, employment, tobacco, religion and spirituality, domain industry, humour, hardware, insurance and jewellery.

To download and read Sedo's Domain Market Study: 2nd Quarter 2010 in full, see:
http://sedo.com/fileadmin/documents...

Who we are

Paco — 2010-08-04T14:21:42Z

"In knowledge-based economies, intangible assets play a critical role in business performance and economic growth. In many sectors investments in intangible assets are now much greater than those in fixed capital equipment." Luxembourg Board of Economic Development.

VAYTON Brand Capital is an Intellectual Property (IP) management agency offering businesses and companies innovative, comprehensive services relevant to today's international market. Our mission is to centralize and optimize your Intellectual Property in a fast-changing global environment.

Whether you are a well-established international corporation with multiple product lines or a small business with a single office, you have in common a valuable intangible asset - Intellectual Property. Your brand name, trademark/logo and Internet domain name define who you are and push your presence locally and worldwide.

VAYTON Brand Capital provides businesses, small and large, worry-free solutions to Intellectual Property Management and Optimization. The VAYTON mission is to deliver uncomplicated, practical services relevant to today's business environment.

Strategic location - at the crossroads of Europe

VAYTON is strategically located in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, recognized as one of the top international business-friendly countries in Europe. Luxembourg is cosmopolitan, multilingual, politically and economically stable and has access to a high number of law firms and financial institutions. Luxembourg has liberal tax laws, offering an 80% tax exemption on revenues for Intellectual Property developed and/or managed in Luxembourg.

Like Luxembourg, the VAYTON team has multilingual capabilities and high level expertise in marketing, legal and financial services. We can position your company—no matter where in the world you are located— to take full advantage of the newest Luxembourg tax laws.

You can do it all in Luxembourg and you can do it all with VAYTON.

Management - Optimization - Identity

VAYTON Brand Capital offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to assist small or large business, communication agencies and law firms who want to protect and optimize Intellectual Property assets. Our approach is customer-focused. We look for ways to ease the burden of IP management and monitoring that fits your needs.

If you are starting a new business or launching a new product line, we offer business identity creation services. For start-up or spin-out companies, there is a choice of on-demand name creation utilizing our team of naming experts and a database of registered names developed by VAYTON.

Naming mistakes

Paco — 2010-07-29T10:16:40Z

Many businesses make the mistake of assuming that finding a name can be done internally, quickly and easily. Years are undertaken in the development of an idea, product or service, only to rush the naming at the last stage. This will often result in a disappointing performance of the product which tested well in market trials.

VAYTON has identified naming mistakes that should be avoided:

culturally, linguistically insensitive
obscure or complex
limited by geography
unchangeable

Cultural, Linguistic Insensitivity.

In a global marketplace, cultural and linguistic differences must be recognized. For instance, a name in one language may be richly connotative but completely negative and off-putting in another language. A cultural icon or myth valued by one country may be perceived by another as offensive and disrespectful.

Obscure or Complex.

Go for what is natural and intuitive. Protracted verbal descriptions have a wind drag effect. The prospect is likely to become impatient if forced to analyze an obscure or complex brand image or tag line. For instance, TFTEN was chosen as the name of a new company doing Search Engine Optimization, meaning "Top First Ten." It was original but too obscure for consumers.

Limited by Geography.

In a boundary-free global market powered by the Internet, choosing a city, state or region as part of the company name can inhibit growth potential. The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey bypassed the tie to New Jersey by adopting the trademark Esso (pronounced SO, the initials for Standard Oil). But with the existence of several other “Standard Oil” companies in the U.S and faced with legal battles over naming rights, the company then changed Esso to Exxon.

Unchangeable.

If the name you have already chosen does not match the essence of your company, product or service, then do not hesitate to change it. Discovering that you have chosen the wrong name and refusing to change it, weakens your position in the market. Cultural shifts can quickly make a name dated and even negative for the prospect.

Naming best practices

Paco — 2010-07-29T10:16:20Z

Short
Simple
Memorable
Unique
Richly Connotative
Adaptable

Keep It Short and Simple … and Memorable.

Short and simple do not preclude sexiness or richness. Movie and book titles are a good example. Short titles capture and sustain the consumers' attention because they are direct, resonant and memorable.

Unique.

Singularity is a valuable asset in the branding/naming business. The basic meaning of branding or trademark is to make not just a mark but a distinguishing mark. Now with competitors at the local and the global levels, plain or generic names weaken the branding power. What if Yahoo! had chosen GeneralInternetDirectory as the brand name and URL?

Richly Connotative…and Emotionally Engaging.

The logo, the tagline, the trademark should be richly connotative and emotionally engaging…instantaneously. Again, the movie industry marketers are masters at effective naming. The movie title “There Will Be Blood” engages the prospective moviegoer on a raw, survivalist level. The title is a premonition and a threat. Just the word “blood” carries layer upon layer of emotional and connotative meanings. The more widely known film title “Terminator” (1984) coalesces in one word the drama of the sci-fi story (the extermination of the human race) and the ruthless, robotic character of the hero (a cyborg assassin from the future) played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Adaptable.

The brand name and logo should be adaptable to multiple uses. The brand name should translate well as the company's Internet Domain Name. samsung.com; puma.com; walmart.com; apple.com With the new generic Top Level Domain names on the horizon, a company would be able to use its brand name (.brand) instead of .com. Companies with a brand portfolio could place all of its brands under one umbrella: iPhone.apple and macbook.apple for instance.

Name creation process

Paco — 2010-07-29T10:16:12Z

Step 1: Project study

The process begins with a VAYTON creative team learning about your business to understand your vision and the essence of your company, product or service.

Step 2: Name creation

Your business might not be able to invest in the considerable time and effort required to create an ideal name. That's why we offer two options. A company may choose to save time by selecting a new name from our portfolio of registered, ready-to-use company and product names. Or a company without time constraints may request on-demand tailor-made name creation and registration services.

Our multicultural creative team relies on powerful proprietary computer software to help generate names and thoroughly check availability of names. As a precautionary measure, dot com domain names for newly created names are registered. Then the names are sent to our name testers.

Step 3: Name testing

VAYTON has an international consumer panel from 30 countries. This panel verifies that the name fulfills the following conditions:

international acceptance
pronunciation and meaning, avoiding similarities to existing brands
brand memory (consumer/client is likely to remember the name)

Step 4: Client's choice

To simplify your final choice, we provide a short list of two to four names with the best branding potential. You may request that we translate the selected name into Asian languages (Chinese 中文, Japanese日本語, and Korean한글) for the fast growing Asian market.

Step 5: Registration of domain names and trademarks

After the final choice for a new name is made, we register local domain names and trademarks to protect your new Intellectual Property. For each domain, we will develop and manage a personalized local page to maximize your web presence. All your targeted countries will be covered.

Step 6: Creating value with your new name

At VAYTON we help ensure your new name builds capital. It is Intellectual Property that will increase in value over time.

Name creation services

Paco — 2010-07-29T10:15:44Z

Naming is a key to the success of your business enterprise. It is the tangible “look” of your Intellectual Property: your brand/trademark/domain name. Choose a name that conveys the essence of your company or product and adds value. In a crowded, global market, finding an available name (which becomes your trademark) is becoming increasingly difficult. In the USA alone, there are about 2.5 million registered trademarks in the United States and at least 3 million more across the globe.

NAME DATABASE: With our creative team and stock of available premium names, we provide the tools to find the right name for the company, service or product. This includes a database of available names in all industries, from fashion to banking. Importantly, every name in the database has been tested and registered as a dot com domain name.

Extensive Portfolio: NAMESTOCK provides companies over 5,000 generic domains and 1000+ ready-to-use created names for marketing new companies, products or services.

Quick Launch Capability: A business entrepreneur can view the database and “click and buy” a new name which is already registered. This makes it easy for a company without a Fortune 1000-size advertising and branding budget to find the right name and to minimize the risk of intellectual property rights infringement.

If you are interested in one of our created names, we invite you to send us your request at contact@vayton.com.

ON-DEMAND CREATION: VAYTON stands out from other name creation competitors by providing a suite of unique, customized services:

Creabrand brainstorming and name creation process
DNSeeker domain name and trademark availability tools platform
NameTaster team to validate your name in 30 countries

Create title

Paco — 2010-07-29T10:15:34Z

Create text - 3. Create

Business Identity Creation

Paco — 2010-07-29T10:14:56Z

VAYTON offers two options tailored to your specific needs: on-demand name creation services and a database of registered names for a quick launch of your business. On-Demand, customized brand name creation is supported by our panel of international name testers. They analyze possible brand names with a focus on the pronunciation and how well it suits specific cultural environments. Our NAMESTOCK is a database of registered names accessible via the Internet so you can launch your business (...) - 4. Identity Creation

General guidelines for pushing Brand Presence

Paco — 2010-07-29T10:14:45Z

VAYTON. Brand Capital offers the following recommendations for taking advantages of the new “connective” forces and re-positioning your business in a time of economic recession.

Keep informed of the marketplace trends and forces. There are both challenges and threats with the new, ubiquitous connectivity. A dynamic, interactive Internet presence can add value to the brand through personal and social connections. Brand loyalty depends on several factors. One being the ability to consistently deliver on the brand promise and another is the ability to proactively sustain that loyalty. The mobile global Internet offers a myriad of ways to promote awareness, capture interest, and create desire that leads to action.

Think outside the brand box. A good brand name and logo alone are not enough. A carefully thought-out and ever-evolving branding strategy should be founded on cutting-edge marketing principles. In fact, branding and marketing are synonymous.

Let the current economic recession be a driver for creativity and opportunity. Re-position your company to match the ever-shifting consumer interests and geo-political realities. For instance, Wal-Mart is repositioning itself as the retail company that offers the lowest prices—though not a new niche for Wal-Mart, the company has returned to a very salient selling point in response to the economic recession.

Seek external expertise to find the right strategy for your new or growing business to optimize your brand power and valuation. Creating a strong brand personality and presence is more complex than it may seem. Expertise in different fields (marketing, technology and intellectual property rights) is required for creating, protecting, managing and optimizing brand capital.