Introducing Attention to digital™
Roughly a 3 minute read by Alex
Behind the scenes here at Engage we’ve been investing a lot of time over the last 18 months working on some pretty challenging questions around what it means to be part of our company and culture and what our purpose is in the wider world (but minus any of the tree-hugging imagery that may conjure up!)
As part of this ongoing process we set ourselves the task of trying to extract and define what it is that makes us stand out in an increasingly saturated digital landscape. We asked questions internally across the team and also externally to our clients - an exercise culminating in some really interesting insights and a lot of post-its stuck on walls! Slowly though, a common theme started to emerge - the attention to detail we strive to apply to everything we produce.
Slowly though, a common theme started to emerge - the attention to detail we strive to apply to everything we produce.
This ‘characteristic’ as you could call it really resonated with the whole team and was even cited as one of the primary drivers for people having applied to work here. The more we mulled it over, the more we agreed that continually striving to exceed expectations in everything we do is a value that defines us and one we collectively take huge pride in.
Armed with this exciting new knowledge we then decided that if it was something that was so interweaved into our culture and values, why not go ahead and trademark it… so that’s exactly what we did!
Now you don’t need to be an expert in UK trademark law to realise that you can’t just simply trademark a common phrase such as ‘attention to detail’, so we simply applied a little artistic license and updated it for a modern age, and so ‘Attention to digital™’ was born
So what does the ™ symbol actually mean?
As well as being permanently etched and legally protected on the public record (well for 10 years at least, which is currently the lifespan of a UK registered trademark) it also means you can be confident that whenever you chance upon the Attention to digital™ tagline that we’ve been hard at work, doing our bit to try and make The Internet a better place.
What’s the difference between ™ and ®?
This was also one of my first thoughts when we started out on the process and after a bit of Googling it transpires that the answer, as with many UK laws, is not quite as clear as you’d think. In the UK, the ™ symbol actually indicates an unregistered trademark, but can be used whilst a trademark application is in progress. Only once the trademark application has been approved can you then start using the ® symbol.
Why aren’t we using the ® symbol then?
Whereas in the USA, not swapping to the use of ® actually invalidates the trademark, UK law is slightly different and stipulates that once registered, you can opt to switch to ® or equally continue to use ™ should you wish. Faced with such a momentous decision, we finally chose to keep the ™ symbol. Why? We just preferred the look of it to be honest!