TIPO’s green trademark analysis report manifests Uni-President’s predominance in green trademark filings

　TIPO has accomplished an analysis report on green trademarks applications in the past ten years.  The analysis report compiles and examines the trend of green trademark applications filed for major product groups in Taiwan, which may help the industry have a clear picture of the trend of green trademark applications in Taiwan for fulfillment and promotion of net zero and carbon reduction.  The report points out the 　high ranking of Uni-President Enterprises Corp., Apple Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Limited (a company based in the Cayman Islands) for green trademark applications.  

　Trademarks are both the representation of the source of goods and services and also the indicator of the trends of the market and economy.  In the global campaign to take urgent steps to save the earth from the rising temperature and bring back a green planet, trademarks, as one type of intellectual properties, are no less important than technology in the race to net zero emissions, and thus, achievement and fulfillment of carbon emission reduction become appealing and pressing for many large companies.  

　For compiling and accomplishing the analysis report, TIPO refers to EUIPO’s study of green trademarks in the EU by filtering trademarks based on the Nice Classification applied for trademark registration applications and further categorizing the green products into nine major groups (including “energy production”, “transportation”, “energy conservation”, “reuse/recycle”, “pollution control”, “waste management, “agriculture”, “environmental awareness”, and “climate change”) and also subdividing them into 35 categories.  TIPO’s report also presents the proportions of green trademark filings in each product group, which provides businesses with a basis for developing their green trademark portfolios, responding to climate change, and adopting strategies for net zero carbon emissions.  

　According to TIPO’s analysis report, green trademarks filings accounted for an approximate share of 15% in overall trademark filings in Taiwan in the past decade, and there had been a consistent growth from the average proportion from around 12.41% (for 2013-2015), 14.72% (for 2016-2019) to 15.87% (for 2020-2022), which reflects businesses are taking green trademark portfolios more seriously.  Also, the analysis report examines the distribution of green trademark filings among the 9 main product groups and finds that the dominant product groups are “energy conservation”, “pollution control”, and “energy production”, which together makes up more than 80% of green trademark applications and makes it evident that the industry’s trademark portfolios focus on the three areas.  

　In addition, the analysis of green trademark filings by the nationality of applicants reveals that green filings in Taiwan are mostly from Taiwan, China, Japan, and the U.S. (in descending order).  China is predominantly active in the green filings for the product groups of “transportation”, “energy conservation”, “pollution control”, and “waste management”.  Japan ranks in the top three spots for all major product groups, except for “energy conservation” and “climate change”, while the U.S. has higher percentage of green filings for “energy production”, “energy conservation”, “reuse/recycle”, “environmental awareness”, and “climate change”.  

　A breakdown of the green trademark applications by looking at the top three applicants across the 9 major product groups indicates that Uni-President, Apple Inc., and Alibaba Group holding Limited from the Cayman Islands are frequently take a spot in the rankings as the most active green trademark applicants in Taiwan. It is noticeable that Uni-President and Apple Inc. each ranks no. 1 or no. 2 in the ranking of applications filed for “energy production”, “energy conservation”, and “waste management”.  Uni-President, in particular, gets an entry in the top 10 list of all major product groups, except “transportation” and “agriculture”, which demonstrates Uni-President’s determination to grow with Taiwan and give an impetus to net zero emissions.  

　For the ultimate achievement of net zero emissions, businesses have to present new products to the market and also to reform existing ones to make them more sustainable, for which both brand owners and consumers have been taking environmental factors more and more seriously.  Green trademarks enhance the visibility of products and display a business’s sustainable values.  TIPO recommends that businesses fulfill their green trademarks portfolios as soon as possible to take advantage of the predominance of green trademarks and capture business opportunities.  (Released 2023.06.05) 
/CCS