China dominates alcohol innovation: Clarivate
Mainland China has become a prominent contributor to the alcoholic beverage industry, filing more alcohol-related inventions and trademark applications than any other country.
Clarivate’s report “ Distilling the IP dynamics of the alcoholic beverage industry”, published yesterday, December 16, explained that China has filed more trademark applications in alcoholic beverage categories, Nice class 32 and 33, than the rest of the world combined since 2017.
On the patent side, China contributes a “disproportionately large volume of patent activity”, according to the report.
The combined patent activity for five major beverage categories—beer, wine, gin, whisky and vodka—in China was historically stable with 750 to 1,000 new inventions first registered each year from 2000 to 2010. But, since 2000 to present, Chinese innovators have filed 30,645 patent applications.
Japan, the second ranked filer, has only filed 3,766 applications since 2000.
“Mainland Chinese firms are innovating in the alcoholic beverage space, but that activity remains focused on beer and wine. However, in the last three to five years, spirits patent activity in Mainland China has started to swing upward,” added the report.
UK’s ‘ginaissance’
Consumers are also showing a preference for craft drinks (such as craft beer). For example, in the US, craft beer sales rose 4% last year in spite of a drop in overall beer sales.
Breweries in the US have focused on the craft beer market and in beer innovation to meet this demand, and the country surpassed Germany in 2016 to move into third place behind Mainland China and Japan in terms of beer innovation.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, consumers in the UK are thirsty for gin from craft distilleries. According to Clarivate, this “ginaissance” has resulted in more than 441 gin distilleries in the UK, more than double the number of five years ago.
Trademark applications for gin have jumped since 2016 and are expected to triple from 1,012 in 2016 to over 3,000 by the end of this year, growing at a faster rate than other major alcoholic beverages.
The report went on to state that although the pandemic has dampened on-premise alcohol sales, booming online sales means the market for alcoholic beverages is expected to increase from $515 billion last year to $528 billion at the end of 2020.
“However most alcoholic beverage brands have not enhanced their web presence beyond a standard .com homepage. Name spaces previously offered by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers in 2012 such as .gin, .whiskey, .tequila and .scotch are yet to be acquired,” added the report.
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