Green trademark applications outnumber overall trademark applications in average for the past decade

　To follow the global trend towards net zero emissions, the enterprises around the world have been strategizing carbon reduction arrangements, which is reflected in the status of green trademark applications in Taiwan throughout the past decade.  According to TIPO’s analysis of green trademark applications of the past ten years, the average growth rate of green trademark applications filed in the past 10 years outshined that of the overall trademark applications in Taiwan, and most of the green trademark applications were filed for the three major categories of energy saving, pollution control, and energy products.  

　The overall trademark applications in Taiwan filed in each of the past three consecutive years since 2020 were above 90,000 cases:  The number of trademark applications for the past decade has been going up at an average growth rate of 2.8%.  In 2023, the number of trademark applications filed from January through October was 75,000 due to the slowdown of economy, marking a year-on-year decline of 4.2%. 

　The number of resident applications continues reaching record highs:  A breakdown by applicant nationality reveals that overall trademark applications in Taiwan for the past decade were mostly filed by resident applicants that accounted for more than 70% of all trademark applications.  In 2022, the number of resident applications hit another record high of 74,000 cases, which represents a 1.3% increase and takes up 78.4% of all applications.  On the other hand, the number of non-resident applications did not return to pre-pandemic level in 2022 following a slump in the number due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.  In terms of the nationality of non-resident applications, 21.1% of these applications came from China, 17.5% from the U.S., and 17.3% from Japan.  

　There is a year-on-year increase in the number of female applicants:  Overall observations for the past decade show that the proportion of female applicants has been rising year by year from 31.9% in 2013 to 41.3% in 2022, a consistent growth attributable to the government’s incessant efforts to promote trademark online application system and the rise of digital economy, which has provided diversified opportunities for women to be employed and to start their own businesses, and therefore, heightened the proportions of female applications.  

　Average growth of green trademark applications in the past decade outplays that of overall trademark applications:  According to TIPO’s analysis report on the green trademark applications in Taiwan in the past decade, green trademark applications increased from 8,845 cases in 2013 to 15,105 cases in 2022, marking an average annual growth rate at 6.1%, outshining the average annual growth rate at 2.8% for overall trademark applications.  Moreover, the proportion of green trademark applications in overall trademark applications is consistently on the rise; in 2022, green trademark applications accounted for 15.9% of overall trademark applications, seeing a 4% rise from 2013, which suggests that the businesses in Taiwan have been placing growing importance on green trademarks and such enhanced attention and efforts will ultimately contribute to Taiwan’s fulfillment of net-zero emissions.  

　“Energy saving”, “pollution control”, and “energy products” are the top three major categories of green trademark applications in Taiwan:  By proportions of the green trademark applications across the nine major categories in 2022, the top three categories in descending order for registration are “energy saving” with 6,745 cases applications, “pollution control” with 5,029 applications, and “energy products” with 3,740 cases, which are evidently higher than the applications of other categories.  The observations of the green trademark applications filed for the nine major categories in the past ten years indicate a common growth in all categories, among which the category of “energy saving” transcended others in 2022 with the largest increase of 3,272 applications from 2013 and also surpassed the category of “pollution control” in 2017 to become the top category.  In addition, the category of “reuse/recycling” experienced its highest average annual growth at 17.4% from 2013 to 2022.  (Released 2023.12.15)  
/CCS