HBO’s trademark strategy for HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

Is it necessary for a television series title to be registered as a trademark?

The question is rhetorical and the answer is clearly yes. The reason for this is related to the potential additional profit that can be generated if the series becomes popular. Trademark protection is crucial in such cases because it can prevent someone else to start using the title for commercial purposes not only for TV series but for many other merchandising products and services such as cosmetics, jewelry, clothes, toys, foods, drinks, entertainment, etc.

A good example of this strategy is the one used by HBO related to their last top series HOUSE OF THE DRAGON a prequel to Game of Thrones. The new series is liked by the fans with an IMDB rating of 8.6.

Although the series has launched recently, HBO started to file trademarks around the world for this title 2 years ago.

The TMView database shows 41 trademarks HOUSE OF THE DRAGON filed or registered in many countries around the world for classes such as 3, 14, 16, 18, 21, 25, 28, 32, 33, and 43 that covers amongst other cosmetics, jewelry, clothes, toys, drinks, etc.

Apart from this, in order to solidify its position, HBO filed different national trademarks in specific languages different from English. One example of this is a Bulgarian trademark for ДОМЪТ НА ДРАКОНА (House of the Dragon) for classes 9, 25, 41.

Such trademark portfolio allows HBO full control of the title exploitation for commercial purposes everywhere which by itself is a good base for lucrative licensing deals.