Use of WIPO’s international trademark system for the protection of brands surged by 14.4% in 2021 to reach 73,100 filings, the fastest year-on-year growth since 2005.
U.S.-based applicants (13,276) filed the largest number of international trademark applications using WIPO’s Madrid System in 2021, followed by those located in Germany (8,799), China (5,272), France (4,888) and the U.K. (4,215) (Annex 5 PDF, Annex 5).
Seven of the top ten origins saw double-digit growth in 2021, with the U.S. (+32.5%), France (+30.7%) and Germany (+18%) reporting the fastest growth rates. Outside the top ten origins, Canada (+49.4%), Norway (+49.8%), Finland (+43.2%) and Sweden (+42.5%) saw robust growth in filings in 2021.
Top Madrid filers
L’Oréal of France, with 171 Madrid applications, surpassed Novartis AG of Switzerland to become the top filer of international trademark applications in 2021. ADP Gauselmann of Germany (120 applications) occupied the second spot, followed by Glaxo Group of the U.K. (110), Huawei Technologies of China (98) and Novartis AG (94). WIPO received 55 more applications from L’Oréal in 2021 than in 2020, elevating it from 5th position to the top spot (Annex 6 PDF, Annex 6).
Top classes
The most-specified class in international applications received by WIPO covers computer hardware and software and other electrical or electronic apparatus - it accounted for 10.7% of the 2021 total. It was followed by the class covering services for business (8.4%) and the one for technological services (7.7%). Among the top 10 classes, technological services (+30.9%) and services for business (+25.1%) saw the fastest growth.
Source: www.wipo.int