Taiwan IPO publishes analysis of trademark applications and the trend in the past decade

　With reference to the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019 annually published by the WIPO IP Statistics Data Center, Taiwan IPO compiles and organizes more than 770,000 trademark applications filed throughout the past decade by the method of grouping trademark applications’ designated goods or services classified by the Nice Classification into ten industry sectors and also by data cleaning and data conversion to complete and present the “Analysis of the Trend in Trademark Applications from 2010 to 2019 by Industry Sector”.  

　In analysis of Taiwan nationals’ trademark applications by a breakdown of industry sector, the top three industry sectors are the agriculture sector (which accounts for 26.3% of all applications), the business services sector (which accounts for 16.4% of all applications, and the health sector (which takes up 15.5% of all applications).  The agriculture sector corresponds to Class 29 to Class 33 and Class 43 in the Nice Classification, including such goods and services as food, beverage, and catering and accommodation that are most relevant to people’s daily lives and consumption.  The fact that agriculture sector makes up more than one-fourth of all nationals’ applications makes it clear that the catering and accommodation industry and food industry play the important and decisive role in Taiwan.  Moreover, the second largest industry sector in Taiwan nationals’ trademark applications is business services sector which covers commercial services of wholesaling, retailing, advertising, marketing, and import/export agency of Class 35 in the Nice Classification and also financial services of Class 36 in the Nice Classification.  Class 35 also tops all of the sectors in Taiwan nationals’ applications, which reveals that such commercial activities as retailing service are booming in Taiwan, while the development of financial services has also been intensifying in recent years.  Furthermore, the third largest industry sector is health industry sector which corresponds to Class 3 and Class 5 in Nice Classification to covers such goods as cosmetics, cleaning products, and pharmaceuticals and medical products.  It reflects that Taiwan nationals take health and beauty care so seriously that trademark applications for these products are on the rise.  

　As to the trademark applications filed by non-resident applicants, the top three industry sectors are the research and technology sector (which accounts for 19.1% of all applications filed by non-resident applicants), and the health sector (which makes up 17.7% of non-resident applications), and the agriculture sector (which takes up 12.4% of non-resident applications).  The research and technology sector covers 3C equipments, communications transmission, scientific and technological R&D as well as legal services under Class 9, 38, 42, and 45 in Nice Classification.  In addition, Japan, the U.S., and China are the top three filing countries of non-resident applications filed in Taiwan in the past decade with more than half of all applications filed by non-resident applicants coming therefrom, which demonstrates that these countries not only compete in technological R&D field but also actively seek trademark protection as a support to their patented technologies by taking advantage of the territoriality principle of trademark protection.  In this regard, Taiwan, as the hub of such high-tech industries as electronics, information, and telecommunications, is an integral and significant part of global branding strategies.  Furthermore, the health sector and the agriculture sector are the second and the third highest industry sectors, respectively, of the non-residents’ trademark applications.  The two sectors also occupy their respective position at the third and the first for Taiwan nationals’ applications.  Such high ranking of the two sectors reveals the high domestic demand for the products and services of the two sectors and thus drives foreign applicants to invest in the two sectors in Taiwan as well.  (Released 2020.06.29) 

/CCS