Nostalgia on Trial: What the Blockbuster Trademark Case Can Teach the C-Suite

A visit to Blockbuster Video used to be the ultimate Friday night trip, but today, that blue and yellow ticket is a legal battleground for intangible assets. In this episode of The Pre-Read, we unearth the true drivers of company valuation, from nostalgic trademarks to proprietary AI. 

“The question isn’t whether Blockbuster was famous. It’s whether it’s famous enough now for trademark law to care in the same way.” —Ivan Moreno 

Guest spotlight:
Ivan Moreno, senior reporter at Law360®, breaks down the Blockbuster trademark case against a Mississippi animal feed company. He discusses why heritage brands must fight to stay legally relevant even when they no longer lead the market. 

Then Alana Chartier, Sustainability Analyst at Workiva, explains the $81 trillion blind spot in global company valuation. She argues that a 21st-century economy cannot run on 20th-century reporting systems that classify human capital and AI as costs instead of assets. 

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction 
03:30 The Blockbuster trademark case vs. Southern Seed and Feed 
05:40 Dilution by blurring: Can you protect a legacy name? 
08:30 Accounting for brand value: Acquisition vs. internal builds 
11:00 Reputation as a corporate credit score 
18:40 The orchard analogy: Why we only count the fruit 
21:30 Integrated reporting: Connecting financial and non-financial data 

Subscribe to catch all upcoming episodes of The Pre-Read.