Brand

A brand is a known pattern of signals, for example a name, a design, or a reputation. The pattern holds the trust that constant voluntary exchange collects. The real value of a brand is not the pattern. The real value is the trust that the pattern represents: the expectation that trades in the future will give value equal to the past experience. Honest trade builds brands. Fraud or failure loses them. A copy of the signals of a brand, alone, is not harmful. The harm occurs only when a person uses copied signals to deceive trade partners, so that they think that they deal with the original. This is fraud. The injury is the deception, not the new use of a pattern. A brand requires no legal monopoly. Trust that it collects, value that it gives, and prosecution of each deception that uses its name keep it safe.