A decision by the Australian Full Federal Court has major implications for local companies that attempt to copy an overseas brand in the local market. It’s also good news for Internet marketers that sell into the Australian market… and may even spur courts in other jurisdictions to take a similar view…

Basically, Hansen – the U.S. maker of the Monster Energy drink - brought an action against Bickfords, a local, Australian company that had copied the Monster Energy name and concept.

Since Bickfords had lawfully registered a trade mark for Monster Energy in Australia, and Hansen hadn’t sold its drink in the Australia market, Hansen didn’t sue for trade mark infringement but instead brought an action against Bickfords for passing off and misleading and deceptive conduct under the Australian Trade Practices Act.

The court decided that although it hadn’t sold in the Australian market, Hansen had nevertheless established a brand reputation by virtue of ‘non-jurisdictionally confined’ marketing techniques, including the Internet, viral campaigns and websites.

Good decision.

It confirms legally what we’ve all known for years as Internet marketers: that brand reputation can quickly travel across jurisdictional boundaries. What’s more, the court’s decision affirms that it’s not so easy to copy a successful overseas product and then argue that its reputation has not yet reached the local market. Not if that overseas product has a strong Internet presence.

Let’s see if courts elsewhere follow suit…

Source: Mallesons Stephen Jaques, “Protecting a “Monster” reputation”, Mallesons Stephen Jaques Alert, November 19, 2008

Andrew Warner recently commented on my article, 3 Tips For Viral Marketing Success. It turns out that Andrew recently interviewed viral marketing ‘guru’, Hiten Shah, partner at ACS SEO and a guy who has helped grow online traffic for major tech players such as TechCrunch, Guy Kawasaki, HP and Samsung.

During the interview, Shah revealed a number of powerful techniques he recommends for optimizing viral marketing campaigns. Here are six (6) such techniques - techniques you may wish to consider using in one or more of YOUR viral marketing initiatives:

1. Use a ‘beat me’ or competitive approach. Websites that allow users to challenge each other are inherently viral. For example, eduFire.com went viral by allowing its users to play language games and then challenge friends to score higher.
2. Require people to refer others to the viral application or content in order to benefit. Put it this way, no-one can use Skype… unless others also use Skype. And the same goes for numerous other applications and services, ranging from email to PayPal.
3. Let people show off - let people create or contribute content, and share what they’ve created. Doing so is a major reason behind the viral success of GE’s online whiteboard.
4. Encourage people to share - make it super-easy for users to share and embed your content. Who does this exceptionally well? YouTube!
5. Give people something to boast about - give people something to brag or boast about… and they will! For example, when Feedburner created a badge allowing bloggers to show how many readers they had, bloggers everywhere began displaying Feedburner badges – leading to Feedburner’s growth.
6. Measure your progress - measure your viral growth to see what is working… and what isn’t… and make changes accordingly.

To learn more powerful viral marketing techniques, click here to listen to the full interview between Andrew and Hiten Shah.

Source: Andrew Warner, “7 Essential Tools of Viral Marketing - The Hiten Shah Interview”, Mixergy.com, September 5, 2008