Trademarks
The total number of classes specified in trademark applications (i.e., class counts) filed worldwide grew by 6% in 2012; this was lower than the growth rates recorded in 2010 (9%) and in 2011 (9.5%). In 2012, a total of 6.58 million classes were specified in applications, which comprised 4.84 million resident application class counts and 1.74 million non-resident class counts.[3]
The majority of the top 20 IP offices saw growth in class counts in 2012. Among the top 20 offices, the IP offices of two middle-income countries, namely Turkey (+24.1%) and China (+16.5%), reported the fastest growth. Mexico (+5.5%) and the Russian Federation (+7.9%) also exhibited strong growth in class counts for 2012. In contrast, the IP offices of European Union (EU) countries recorded fewer application class counts in 2012 than in 2011. For example, Italy reported an 8.3% decrease, while Germany and Spain reported decreases of 6.4% and 5.6%, respectively.
In 2012, residents of China filed, worldwide, applications with approximately 1.58 million class counts; this was significantly higher than the figures for the US (599,896), Germany (387,503) and France (384,665). In many countries, the majority of trademarks were filed by residents with their respective domestic IP offices. However, there were some notable exceptions; a high proportion of total filings originating in Austria (49.5%), Switzerland (76.9%) and the United States of America (45%) were filed abroad.
Quelle: WIPO