Pacha de Cacao

How do you create a new trademark?

Marika, the founder of Pacha de Cacao, is a cocoa expert who has worked for cocoa companies for many years. When making raw chocolate, the first step is to chop up the harvested pods to reveal the cocoa beans. The pulp surrounding the beans is then discarded. Having tasted the juice of cacao pulp when living in Ecuador, Marika was amazed that this was simply thrown away, and her first thought was "I have to do something with this".

So how does one go from having an idea to registering a trademark? The fairytale version is that you have an inspired hunch and it is immediately protected, but in practice, it's not quite that simple. With the help of Knijff Trademark Attorneys, every possible brand name was checked for availability, with some names revealing possible risks. Marika kept trying to find the perfect name, and finally she came up with Pacha de Cacao. This trademark was available, sounded good and encapsulated all the brand values. The Dutch have a saying 'zonder wrijving geen glans', which means that you can't get good results without a lot of effort.  This is all too true; brands need to be distinctive and this can only be achieved by carefully creating an original trademark like Pacha de Cacao.