Although created in its 2D, top-down form at the end of the 90s, it was 2001's GTA III that turned the franchise into the globally recognised brand it is today.
What I really hate, though, is when companies decide they don't want to play any more, and refuse image rights to films that happen to feature their wares as part of the fabric of daily life; as if a parallel cinematic universe exists, identical but for the total absence of internationally recognised brand names.
"Trademarks with indefinite lives" (ie, brands) are worth just $6.7 billion, say the company's accounts.The reason is that both American and international accounting rules prohibit companies from recognising brands and many other "intangible" assets (such as customer lists) if they have created them themselves.
Despondency is giving way to visions of Taiwan as a centre of research and development (R&D), "knowledge-based" industries based on the exploitation of ideas, logistics and financial services, and globally recognised brands.BenQ is among the first of Taiwan's big ODM firms (its turnover in 2003 was $3.2 billion) to try building a brand.
United fans already well versed in the finer points of UK takeover law, media ownership rules, leveraged buyouts and the junk bond market, must now bone up on the regulations of a fast-growing Singaporean stock exchange desperate to attract globally recognised brands.
But all eyes were focused on the stronger stuff which Mr Easterbrook unveiled on May 4th with a 23-minute video announcement.The new plan features many sensible ideas, but for the most part he seems to be focused on catching up with rivals, rather than charging ahead with innovative menu items or an original strategy for what is one of the world's most widely recognised brands.
Practically, the new suffix will help tie together the organisation's disparate offices under one globally recognised brand-name domain that is neither country- nor language-specific.
Keustermans, the CEO of Plumbee adds: "Endemol will become a strategic shareholder and this will enable us to leverage the company's international network and globally recognised brands.
International brands UNICEF has worked with partners to develop globally recognised brands.
The clothes and leather goods have no logo – the range's only signature is a stitched slash, so only those in the know will recognise the brand.
