Open branding: Managing the unauthorized use of brand-related intellectual property Karen Robson a, *, Jeremy de Beer b , Ian P. McCarthy c,d a Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada b Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada c Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC V6C 1W6, Canada d LUISS, Rome, Italy KEYWORDS Brand management; Open branding; Intellectual property; IP; Creative consumers; Consumer innovation Abstract Consumers often innovate with brand-related intellectual property (IP) without permission. Although firms often respond by exercising their legal right to stop such activity, there are a variety of situations in which consumers’ unautho- rized use of brand-related IP can be desirable for a brand or in which enforcing IP rights can adversely affect a brand. This article illustrates situations in which managers may benefit from choosing to forgo exercising their IP rights. To assist managers, this article contributes a framework for understanding the managerial approaches to situations in which consumers use IP without permission. ª 2020 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Brand management: It’s time to open up Jose Avila moved to Arizona in 2005. He had no furniture and no budget for buying furniture. What he did have was an abundance of FedEx boxes. Using these boxes, Avila created tables, chairs, and every other piece of furniture he needed. His friends posted photos of his furniture on social media, and Avila created a websi- tedfedexfurniture.comdshowcasing his creations. This quickly attracted attention and admiration from individuals and the press. Unfor- tunately for Avila, FedEx had a different perspec- tive, and Avila received a cease and desist letter demanding the website be taken down and his creations be destroyed. FedEx argued that Avila infringed on its intellectual property (IP) rights. Ultimately, Avila complied, but when the public learned about this, social media lit up with con- demnations of FedEx for persecuting Avila. The story of Jose Avila is an example of a cre- ative consumer act, whereby a consumer adapts, modifies, or transforms a proprietary offering (Berthon, Pitt, McCarthy, & Kates, 2007). Con- sumers sometimes get creative with brand-related IP (i.e., trademarks and copyrights associated with * Corresponding author E-mail addresses: krobson@uwindsor.ca (K. Robson), jeremy.debeer@uottawa.ca (J. de Beer), ian_mccarthy@sfu. ca (I.P. McCarthy) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2020.07.001 0007-6813/ª 2020 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Business Horizons (xxxx) xxx, xxx Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.journals.elsevier.com/business-horizons