WIPO and EPO: filings are a sign of economic growth
Rising international trademark and European patent filings are being mooted as indicators of economic recovery by the heads of IP organisations.
The number of international trademark filings under the Madrid system increased by 12.8 percent in 2010. The 85 signatories to the Madrid Protocol filed 4,492 more applications than they did in 2009.
“[W]e’ve spoken in the past about filings being a leading indicator of economic activity more generally, so that declines tend to precede recessions,” said Francis Gurry, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in a press conference on April 4.
“Here we have an example of trademark filings indicating that the general economic recovery started to get underway in 2010. That takes them... to...just below the level they were in 2008.”
The European Patent Office (EPO) enjoyed a similar increase in its patent applications. The EPO received 235,029 patent applications in 2010, an 11 percent increase on the number of patent applications that it received in 2009.
“The figures are clear: growth is back,” said Benoît Battistelli, president of the EPO, in an April 13 statement. “In 2010, there was an increase in demand for patent protection from every region of the world.”
WIPO’s Gurry also pointed to trademark registration renewals as a sign that economies are starting to return to their pre-financial crisis levels.
Gurry said: “We saw that renewals of existing trademark registrations on the Madrid international register rose by 14.1 percent in 2010. So [that is] another, if you like, confirmation of an increasingly healthy economic environment.”
The biggest shares of European patent applications in 2010 came from the member states of the European Patent Organisation, the US, Japan, South Korea and China.
Battistelli said: “After a two-year slump, the EU and [the] US are nearly back to their levels of patenting before the crisis. This combined with a massive rise in patent applications from Asia— led by China—has made 2010 a record year at the EPO.”
