ABSTRACT
So far, the notion of the brand that has been developed is that it is the dynamic organisation of a system of relations between products. It has been further suggested that the framing of the market by the interface of the brand contributes to the emergence of a non-linear process of production. In Chapter 4, I argued that the performativity of the brand is signified in a logo or logos. Attention was drawn there to the processes of personalisation and the ways in which logos may be seen as the face of the brand. In this chapter, the discussion will focus on how the logo as a sign of the brand is legally constituted as a kind of intellectual property1 and how this legal constitution as property has supported the valuation and exploitation of the brand as a commercial asset. In this respect, the law makes a specific contribution to the objectivity of the brand-that is, to the operation of the brand as a new market modality or cultural form. It will be suggested that the law is one of the most significant actors in the organisation of the asymmetry of the relations between producers and consumers, operating so as to consolidate and legitimate the use of the brand as an object or mode of capital accumulation.
