World intellectual property organization (WIPO) figures indicate that international trade mark filing suffer during 2009 because of the global economic downturn. Filing made under WIPO’s Madrid system of the international registration of marks dropped by 16percentage in 2009. Trademark figure are a “leading indicator” of economic events, said Francis Gurry during a process conference. Gurry is director general at WIPO. WIPO has tracked the decline of trade marks registered around the world, he said. Registrations started to decline halfway through 2007, which was an early indicator of adifficult 2008, before the 16 percentage in 2009. Trade mark application are generally made for new products or companies ,said Gurry ,so times of economic depression tend to signal a noticeable decline in the number of application. Promising sign may be seen in the figure for Japan and Europe Union(EU).
The EU saw 3.1 percent rise in international trade mark application , while Japan increased by 2.7 percent. Gurry said Japan is an interesting case. With respect to international patent applications, there was also a rise last year in Japan despite the extremely difficult economic condition the country. So once again it is an indication of how much emphasis is placed on innovation by Japanese industry and Companies. China ranked op as the most designated country in 2009, with 14766 designations. These statistics shows in which markets companies are interested in doing business, said Gurry.
He said: ” it means that when companies apply for trade marks and they want coverage.
