At least from a branding standpoint, when the civilian consumer market thinks military, they think MultiCam. Yet another example of this is this “Military Limited Edition” bottle of firm hold styling gel from American Crew.
I took the boys in for hair cuts this morning and low-and-behold, there it was, a MultiCamesque pattern on the shelf of our local Best Cuts. Now, American Crew wants you to know that they support the USO. But this bottle illustrates an issue that someone is going to encounter starting early next year. The US Army is going to select a new family of camouflage patterns. US Government use of those patterns will be covered a licensing agreement. But commercial use, such as this bottle will controlled by the pattern developer. It’s going to be very lucrative for the winner, if they can control its licensed use. With everything from Halloween costumes to bookmarks to hair gel already out there sporting MultiCam in order to capitalize on America’s support of her military, how will the winner of the US Army Camouflage Improvement Effort get their arms around the market and control use of their IP?
Tags: Multicam
I just wish they’d get on with announcing who it’s going to be…and I’d be stoked if it ends up being Multicam.
I think that it’s going to be tough to keep track of who ends up using their IP with or without a license, I suspect that they’ll have their hands full because I think that most people not dealing with the military or tactical industry won’t realize that that a given pattern is actually copyrighted. I think that most people who would end up using the winning pattern unlicensed will be people like the bookmark maker and the gel makers, people who aren’t in the military/tactical industry and don’t realize that patterns like Multicam are actually copyrighted and can’t be used without a license, I think that they’re accustomed to the days of the old woodland where everybody used it everywhere without any concern