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The Eagle lands
Eagle Boys Pizza challenges the pizza delivery industry with a hot intellectual
property strategy.
In 1986 Tom Potter, then only in his early 20s, opened up his first Eagle Boys
Pizza store in Albury on the New South Wales/Victoria border.
Now, almost 11 years and a fistful of awards later, there are a mind boggling
145 franchised stores around Australia and New Zealand. The immediate plans
for expansion focus on the burgeoning potential of Asian markets.
Though this is clearly a business success story, it is also an intellectual
property triumph.
What Australian business leaders are increasingly becoming aware of is that
watertight business systems combined with aggressive and visionary intellectual
property protection can make your business almost invincible.
Says Alan Bates, Eagle Boys company secretary, 'This works several ways. Mainly,
formal intellectual property protection of our trade marks, the pink glow that
our lighting fascia produces, and specific innovations like our new double tiered
pizza box, gives us tangible, saleable assets which we control centrally and
have packaged into our franchise system.'
'This lessens the likelihood that other business's who respect intellectual
property will directly infringe ours. And when we are infringed, whether intentionally
or inadvertently, we have a powerful bite to our bark. An actual registered
trade mark or patent certificate makes a compelling and persuasive argument
when we do find infringement out there in the marketplace.'
From the beginning, Tom understood the value of intellectual property rights.
The first Eagle Boys trade mark was registered within months of establishing
his first store. Nearly a dozen trade mark registrations have followed since.
More recently, Eagle Boys challenged the trade mark registration system by
applying for a monopoly over the pink glow that results from the lighting fascia
on their shopfronts.
'Yes, it was a bold move,' says Alan. 'But this pink glow is a trade mark feature
if ever there was one. We did a customer survey in support of our application
to IP Australia and we found that people strongly associated this pink glow
with our stores. And I know that when I visit new franchisees in many of the
smaller towns, all I have to do is drive down the main street, find the pink
glow and I'm there.'
There is no doubt that any edge in the highly competitive pizza delivery game
is vital.
'The pizza delivery market is now deal driven. The majority of our telephone
orders involve the two pizza deal. So we brainstormed about how we could get
two pizzas into one box,' says Alan.
The end result, an ingenious two tiered box, is the subject of patent and design
registration applications here and overseas. And the benefits have extended
past the initial gimmick.
'At the time, our goal was simply to get two pizzas into one box without the
pizzas and the box turning to mush. But this one innovation has saved us 20%
on our box expenses. The heat generated from the two pizzas keeps them piping
hot. We are using less material for each box, and the box's strength is augmented
by recycled paper stock, so it is an environmentally friendly move.'
Though they knew they were onto a winner, the new box remained confidential
information until applications were made with IP Australia. To have released
it to the public before then would have made the box ineligible for these vital
intellectual property rights.
'Our intellectual property specialist is instrumental in securing formal rights,
like registered trade marks and patents. But if we didn't also have an in-house
understanding of the whole spectrum of rights, we could actually have made decisions
which are incredibly damaging instead of protecting,' says Alan.
'For instance, our public relations, marketing and design teams have to understand
that releasing a major patentable initiative like the new box to the public,
before we have made formal applications, would have derailed our success. The
franchisees of our 145 stores know that the power of their franchise is weakened
by any infringement of our rights. They are our eyes and ears, and are quick
to bring infringement to our attention.'
'So you must know your rights, but you must also have an intellectual property
strategy which brings all of these separate pieces together. Without it, we
would be running blind.'
Additional information
The following trade marks are registered by Eagle Boys Dial A Pizza Pty Ltd:
Eagle Boys
568128 (Class 42)
Pink glow on store fascia
585856 (Class 42)
You can conduct an online
search for these or other trademarks.
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