Trademark and brand protection technology business, Corsearch, has revealed that China and the US dominate the list of the top 50 companies for trademark filing in 2022, with data from the Corsearch Trademark Industry Report released in May at the International Trade Association’s annual meeting in Singapore.
In comparison to 2021, the top five filers have seen some changes with far less dominance from Chinese companies in 2022. In 2022, ByteDance, Baidu and Xiaomi dropped out of the top five, with ByteDance moving from third to eighth place, Baidu falling sharply from fifth to 27th and Xiaomi dropping from fourth to 19th place.
These companies were replaced in the top five by Amazon, rising from seventh place in 2021 to third place in 2022; LVMH which rose from eighth to second place and Johnson & Johnson, which moved up from 16th to fifth.
The report finds China features 14 entries into the Top 50, while the US features 12. However, Chinese companies dominate nearer the top.
South Korea ranks as the country with the third most active companies, featuring six entries in the top 50 rankings, while Switzerland has five and Japan four. Looking at broader regions, APAC pulls ahead of North America and Europe, with 26 entries in the top 50 compared to only 13 in North America and 10 in Europe.
However, the average number of filings has decreased year-on-year; in 2021, the top 20 filers all filed more than 2,000 trademarks across the period, whereas this figure was only achieved by the top 12 in 2022.
Stephen Stolfi, Chairman of Customer & Industry Advisory at Corsearch, said: “Our report shows that the level of filings year-on-year has fluctuated, with China retaining its expected prominence, but witnessing significant falls in filing from 2021’s most active businesses, allowing North America and Europe to edge up the rankings.
“Evident opportunities remain for IP lawyers and the companies they represent to capitalise on new verticals, not only in these regions, but specifically in the more active sectors revealed in our report, including among agriculture, foodstuff, advertising and the business product classes.
“The global economic turmoil in 2023 will create further interesting changes next year, as the world reacts to the fallout from rising inflation and the supply chain shock of geopolitical tensions over the past two years, as well as emerging opportunities in digital, sustainability, health and wellness, crypto and cannabis. It will be interesting to see the picture that next year’s report paints on how these most active companies have reacted.”
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