From crumb to concept: A recipe for brand strategy

The Roald Dahl Story Company, the managers of author Roald Dahl's stories, characters and copyrights, has recently filed new UK trade mark applications for BRUCE and BRUCE BOGTROTTER, covering desserts and cakes in classes 29 and 30.

A reminder, Bruce Bogtrotter is a character in Roald Dahl's book Matilda. The poor kid steals a slice of Miss Trunchbull's cake and is forced to eat a very large chocolate cake as punishment. Likely as a result of the story, bakers and cake makers have created various cakes and recipes inspired by ‘Bruce Bogtrotter’s cake’.

For the eagle eyed among us, trade mark registers - as public records - can therefore present clues as to a brand or business's intentions. In this case, is the Roald Dahl Story Company going to shortly launch a Bruce Bogtrotter branded chocolate cake? We often advise that putting trade mark protection in place before a product is launched is very important to secure your rights before costs and efforts are incurred in manufacturing products.

We also often advise that securing a trade mark enables you to control how the mark is used - in this case, securing BRUCE and BRUCE BOGTROTTER as trade marks, the Roald Dahl Story Company would be able to prevent others from using these names for cakes and thereby preserving its own rights in the name.

The intentions of Roald Dahl Story Company behind these new applications will no doubt shortly become clear.

Roald Dahl’s estate eyes Bruce Bogtrotter chocolate cake launch

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