By the time RadioShack filed for bankruptcy in February, the once-mighty electronics chain had long been in decline. Yet nostalgia for the 94-year-old brand continues to linger, as evidenced by the recent auction of the iconic RadioShack name for $26.2 million. Its sale in May to hedge fund Standard General LP, which will reportedly keep more than 40 percent of RadioShack stores open, underscores the value of a trademark—even in the case of a declining business struggling to survive decades after its prime, something RadioShack itself acknowledged in a self-mocking "Goodbye '80s" Super Bowl commercial in 2014 featuring Hulk Hogan, Mary Lou Retton, Alf, and other 1980s pop-culture icons.
That the RadioShack name commanded a robust sales price should not come as a surprise. While patents frequently garner much of the attention in a company's intellectual property (IP) portfolio, trademarks are a sometimes-overlooked but substantial source of value. In fact, a trademark may be a company's most valuable asset. After all, a trademark does more than simply tell consumers that a particular company is the source of a product or service; a trademark also symbolizes the value that consumers have come to associate over the years with those products and services, known as goodwill. In this article, Finnegan attorneys Danny M. Awdeh and Brian R. Westley discuss the importance of trademarks in an IP portfolio and how a company can leverage its trademarks to increase revenue and brand awareness.
Previously published in Landslide
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