Why Superfans Might Deserve Access To Your Trademark

There is a tricky tension sitting at the heart of fan culture: trademark protection on one side, and a consumer's desire to remix and share content that may infringe on those trademarks on the other.

It has been a tough issue for brands to manage, because they want to encourage these “superfans” and also maintain some kind of brand consistency. The two goals pull in opposite directions, and the legal department usually wins.

The future may be moving toward a hybrid, where the standard becomes brands offering a sort of royalty-free license to consumers to encourage superfandom instead of litigating it. That would be a significant shift in how brands think about ownership, and my guess is the brands that get there first will look generous rather than merely late.