Date:12/02/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/02/12/stories/2006021206871500.htm

Business

China biggest target of brand owners

R. Gopalakrishnan

Germany occupies top slot among applicants

CHENNAI: China is emerging as the most important target for foreign owners of trademarks, obviously in view of its large domestic market. At the same time, China is becoming an active user of trademarks with a view to gaining markets abroad for its own products and services.

This is clear from the data released on Friday by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Geneva, on applications for international registration of trademarks under the Madrid System during 2005.

(Though India has announced its intention to join the Madrid System which governs international registration of trademarks, it has not yet done so and hence India does not figure in the WIPO annual statistics. The WIPO only facilitates the submission of a single application in a single language for registering trade marks in different countries — called "designated'' countries chosen by the applicant — and does not itself grant trade mark registration).

In 2005, out of a total of 356,476 new `designations,' China became the most designated country (with 13,576 designations), a position held by Switzerland since 1997. Other countries, which have moved up in the ranking of most designated countries, compared to 2004 are the U.S., Japan, Turkey, Norway, Ukraine, Australia, Romania and the Republic of Korea.

In terms of the number of international trademark applications, which totalled 33,565 in 2005 (an increase of 13.9 per cent over 2004), the largest number was accounted for by users in Germany (5,802 or 17.3 per cent), followed by France (10.4 per cent), the U.S. (8.5 per cent), Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, 7.2 per cent), Italy (7 per cent), Switzerland (6.7 per cent), European Community (5.5 per cent) and China (4 per cent).

The relatively low figures of the U.S. reflect the fact that it became a member of the Madrid System only two years ago. In the case of the European Union, the low figure represents only the applications filed from the Community's trademark office, while a large number (20,295) were filed from the respective national offices of the EC's member-countries.

Among developing countries, the largest filer of international applications (seeking trademark registration in countries other than the originating country) was China (with 1,334 applications), followed by the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Morocco, Viet Nam and the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, developing countries as a whole accounted for only 5.3 per cent of the total applications.