KOL comes with a healthcare warning

'Key opinion leaders' are of course all the rage in the PR industry, a coveted clutch of influential souls. But companies using 'key opinion leader', or rather the abbreviation 'KOL', could find themselves in trouble.

For PRWeek learns that a healthcare marketing company called Translucency has registered the term.

Theoretically this bans any other company marketing conferences or services using the term KOL to mean key opinion leader.

'When people register trademarks it's generally down to industry rather than the trademark office to regulate it,' advises Eversheds associate IP lawyer Vicki Salmon. 'Maybe the PR industry should have noticed.'

Anyone widely using the term need not panic, though. Translucency registered the trademark in 2001 and hasn't yet stirred up any trouble. But it could change its mind.

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