China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Taiwan Have Highest Consumer Market Potential

Thomson Reuters CompuMark, a Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science business and global leader in trademark searching and brand protection solutions, released its analysis of global trademark trends today in its third-annual State of Trademarks Report: Global Insights on Trademark Trends. The report tracks trademark activity across 186 countries, covering nearly 4-and-a-half-million marks published across all classes in 2013. The resulting analysis identifies the top 10 global trademark registrars, overall trademark class activity and total published trademark volume based on data from the Thomson Reuters CompuMarkSAEGIS® on SERION® online search and screening tool.

The 2013 study uncovered a major shift in focus among multinational brand owners, with all eyes firmly fixed on emerging economies. Key findings from the report include:

• China Leads the World in Total Trademark Volume: China leads the world with over 860,000 new trademarks published in 2013. It is followed by the U.S., Brazil, South Korea, Turkey and Japan.

• India, Mexico and Taiwan Replace UK, Germany and Canada on Top 10 List: When studying each unique mark (regardless of the number of classes in which it is filed),the UK, Germany and Canada dropped from the list of top 10 global trademark registrars and are replaced by India, Mexico and Taiwan. Noticeably missing from the top 10 list was one of the four largest emerging and developing markets, Russia.

• Brazil Is Fastest-Growing Consumer Market: Among the top 10 trademark registrars in 2013, those showing the sharpest year-over-year growth in new trademark filings are Brazil (53 percent), South Korea (23 percent) and Turkey (18 percent).

• Advertising (Class 35) Tops Trademark Categories: Across all international trademark classes, class 35: Advertising & Business Management is again the most active, with over 440,000 published trademarks globally. Class 35 is followed by class 9: Scientific, nautical, surveying and other life-saving and teaching apparatus, which has over 280,000 published marks, up from its third place ranking in the prior year.
“Trademarks provide a valuable window into the world’s expanding economy via the filing data of today’s multinational corporations,” said David Brown, managing director, Thomson Reuters IP Solutions.  “This report provides strategic insight into macro business trends and expansion in new markets globally.”

“SAEGIS on SERION is the world’s only online trademark search and screening solution with the depth and breadth of coverage to enable such a comprehensive report,” said Viji Krishnan, general manager, Thomson Reuters CompuMark. “With data from 186 countries, customers get a truly global view of the trademark landscape to shape and inform their brand strategies.”

The data in this report were compiled using the Thomson Reuters CompuMark SAEGIS on SERION online screening tool to identify trademark filings worldwide from January 1, 2007 through December 19, 2013.

View the full report here: 2013 State of Trademark Report: Global Insights on Trademark Trends or at: trademarks.thomsonreuters.com.