Technological advances in the virtual world
continue to impact how Intellectual Property is created, managed
and protected
LONDON, May 3, 2022
/PRNewswire/ -- Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a global leader in
providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace
of innovation, announced today a new report, Traversing the
evolving trademark landscape: discover trends, challenges and
opportunities through the lens of IP intelligence. According to
the report, advances in the virtual world – the emergence of
crypto-currency, the rise of the metaverse and surging popularity
of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – have helped propel Nice Class 9 (technology, computer hardware and
software) filings from third place in 2011 to second by the end of
2021.
Since the first U.S. trademark application for NFTs was filed in
August 2018, related trademark
applications have soared over 9,000% and those for virtual goods or
services increased 250% in 2021, according to Clarivate™ trademark
research data. Brands from Louis
Vuitton1 and Dolce and Gabbana, to
Coca-Cola2 and even the Australian Open tennis
event,3 are experimenting with NFTs.
The report also finds that despite continued socio-economic
uncertainty, worldwide trademark filing activity increased globally
for the 10th consecutive year. However, there was a
notable exception to the overall rise in trademark filing activity
in Class 10 (medical and diagnostic equipment), which fell 22% last
year. This suggests that the flurry of commercial activity in
response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for masks or face
coverings and other personal protective equipment, may have passed
its peak.
Robert Reading, Head of Content
Strategy, Clarivate said, "We live in a digital, hyper-connected
and technologically advanced world where trends such as NFTs and
the metaverse present both un-precedented opportunities and
challenges to how intellectual property is created, managed and
protected. Through the lens of trademark research intelligence,
brands and organizations can better understand how to make
confident business and brand decisions in a fast-evolving trademark
landscape."
Other key findings of the report include:
- U.S. trademark applications for NFTs jumped almost seven-fold
in the first two months of 2022.
- Interest in the metaverse is driving a significant increase in
applications using the term "Meta" and those for marks covering
"virtual goods/services".
- Mainland China continues to
power world trademark filing activity and made up almost 70% of
global filing activity in 2021, followed by the United States (5%), India (3%), Brazil (3%) and South Korea (2%).
- Mainland Chinese companies continue to dominate the list of top
filers across multiple registers, accounting for five of the top
ten filers – Xiaomi, Tencent,
Alibaba, Huawei and Zhejiang Geely.
- Nice Class 35 (retail,
advertising, marketing and business services) dominated in Mainland
China in 2021, similar to the worldwide trend. The alcoholic
beverage sector in Mainland China experienced strong trademark
filing growth, with Class 33 (alcoholic beverages excluding beer)
seeing a 34% increase and Class 32 (beer and non-alcoholic
beverages) up by 13% in 2021.
- Despite a strong start and a record year for The United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), filing volume steadily
fell throughout 2021.
- Mainland China was the source
of 28% of all trademark applications filed at the USPTO in 2021, an
increase of 4% from the previous year. Conversely, trademark
applications from U.S. addresses fell by 3% in 2021.
- The United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has
been the fastest growing major trademark register in the world,
growing 31% in 2020 and 38% in 2021.
- South Korea ranks among the
top five IP offices in the world, underlining its importance on the
global IP stage. Trademark filing activity at the Korean
Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) has been rising consistently
and saw double digit year-on-year increases in filing volume
between 2019 and 2021.
Reading concluded, "Organizations continue to face some of the
most challenging business conditions today. Making informed brand
decisions with certainty and speed to fuel progress and growth is
getting harder. At Clarivate, we empower organizations with
critical insights and IP management solutions that are designed to
help them build and protect their most critical asset – their
brand. In a world where organizations are operating in a
borderless, highly competitive and increasingly online marketplace,
curating and safeguarding unique and valuable brand identities will
become ever more critical to business success."
About Clarivate
Clarivate™ is a global leader in providing solutions to
accelerate the pace of innovation. Our bold mission is to help
customers solve some of the world's most complex problems by
providing actionable information and insights that reduce the time
from new ideas to life-changing inventions in the areas of Academia
& Government, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Professional
Services and Consumer Goods, Manufacturing & Technology. We
help customers discover, protect and commercialize their inventions
using our trusted subscription and technology-based solutions
coupled with deep domain expertise. For more information, please
visit clarivate.com.
Media contact:
Jack
Wan, Director, External Communications
media.enquiries@clarivate.com
1 Clarivate, "Luxury brands: Re-calibrating brand
strategies for a changing world", December
2021
2 The Drum, "5 brands already boldly embracing the
metaverse", January 2022
3 CMO, "15 brands jumping into NFTs", January 2022
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SOURCE Clarivate Plc