BrandZ, a market research company, has released an interesting report into the ‘Top 100 Most Valuable Bands in 2016’.The top 10 ranking brands include Google, Apple, Microsoft, AT&T ,Facebook, Visa, Amazon, Verizon, McDonald’s and IBM. To read the report please click here. The report makes for interesting reading, and several points are worth highlighting. Brand value has increased by 133% over the past 11 years, and brands now ‘need to be seen as doing more than just making money; they need to be seen as improving the life of the consumer in some way’.We believe that the importance of brand cannot be underestimated. In 2016 we held a roundtable event with several local design agencies to understand more about the importance of brand to their clients, and the importance of protection in a digital world that is getting smaller and smaller each day. There has been a rise in technological start-up businesses with little, or in some cases, no tangible assets, for example Airbnb and Uber. Brand reputation is therefore extremely important, and all businesses have elements of their brand that can be legally protected to ensure that their reputation is not tarnished.To read more about this please click the link below to read Emma Reeve’s article considering the new rules of branding and trade marks.http://www.behindthespin.com/features/the-new-rules-of-branding-and-trade-marks