April 10, 2016
Where to Protect Trademarks Abroad
For the most part, where a business should protect its trademarks aligns with where the business uses or is likely to use those trademarks. However, it can be helpful to benchmark a foreign filing strategy with what other businesses are doing, so here it the top ten list of countries where U.S. businesses file for trademark protection.
- China
- Canada
- Mexico
- Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market
- Brazil
- Australia
- Japan
- Republic of Korea
- India
- Argentina
(Based upon WIPO data for 2014). Whenever you see a list of what others are doing, you need to do a reality check for your own particular circumstances. Mom had a point when she asked: “If everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you jump too?”
Here is the whole list
Country | Symbol | Filings | Percentage |
China | CN | 23266 | 15% |
Canada | CA | 16653 | 11% |
Mexico | MX | 11218 | 7% |
Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market | EM | 11019 | 7% |
Brazil | BR | 9026 | 6% |
Australia | AU | 4840 | 3% |
Japan | JP | 4757 | 3% |
Republic of Korea | KR | 4257 | 3% |
India | IN | 4253 | 3% |
Argentina | AR | 4212 | 3% |
South Africa | ZA | 4042 | 3% |
China, Hong Kong SAR | HK | 3861 | 2% |
Malaysia | MY | 3604 | 2% |
Thailand | TH | 3265 | 2% |
United Arab Emirates | AE | 2976 | 2% |
Chile | CL | 2739 | 2% |
Russian Federation | RU | 2503 | 2% |
Colombia | CO | 2199 | 1% |
Peru | PE | 2175 | 1% |
Indonesia | ID | 2002 | 1% |
New Zealand | NZ | 1976 | 1% |
Philippines | PH | 1858 | 1% |
Singapore | SG | 1812 | 1% |
China, Macao SAR | MO | 1779 | 1% |
Turkey | TR | 1588 | 1% |
Switzerland | CH | 1514 | 1% |
Panama | PA | 1512 | 1% |
Dominican Republic | DO | 1295 | 1% |
Bolivia (Plurinational State of) | BO | 1251 | 1% |
Egypt | EG | 1191 | 1% |
United Kingdom | GB | 1190 | 1% |
Norway | NO | 1184 | 1% |
Viet Nam | VN | 1168 | 1% |
Jordan | JO | 1127 | 1% |
Israel | IL | 1115 | 1% |
Bahrain | BH | 1058 | 1% |
Uruguay | UY | 1007 | 1% |
Algeria | DZ | 820 | 1% |
Pakistan | PK | 790 | 0% |
Cambodia | KH | 669 | 0% |
Ukraine | UA | 618 | 0% |
France | FR | 538 | 0% |
African Intellectual Property Organization | OA | 509 | 0% |
Germany | DE | 504 | 0% |
Yemen | YE | 447 | 0% |
Uganda | UG | 440 | 0% |
Kazakhstan | KZ | 418 | 0% |
Morocco | MA | 359 | 0% |
Iceland | IS | 356 | 0% |
Belarus | BY | 297 | 0% |
Benelux | BX | 287 | 0% |
Spain | ES | 267 | 0% |
Italy | IT | 254 | 0% |
Serbia | RS | 239 | 0% |
Georgia | GE | 223 | 0% |
Azerbaijan | AZ | 199 | 0% |
Curaçao | CW | 193 | 0% |
Poland | PL | 192 | 0% |
Armenia | AM | 187 | 0% |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | BA | 184 | 0% |
Republic of Moldova | MD | 183 | 0% |
Montenegro | ME | 173 | 0% |
Uzbekistan | UZ | 164 | 0% |
Albania | AL | 157 | 0% |
Mongolia | MN | 154 | 0% |
Sint Maarten (Dutch Part) | SX | 142 | 0% |
Kyrgyzstan | KG | 127 | 0% |
Andorra | AD | 120 | 0% |
Ireland | IE | 118 | 0% |
Monaco | MC | 106 | 0% |
Portugal | PT | 101 | 0% |
Sweden | SE | 93 | 0% |
Madagascar | MG | 92 | 0% |
Cuba | CU | 90 | 0% |
Denmark | DK | 90 | 0% |
Hungary | HU | 72 | 0% |
Liechtenstein | LI | 68 | 0% |
Austria | AT | 63 | 0% |
Czech Republic | CZ | 63 | 0% |
Croatia | HR | 62 | 0% |
Romania | RO | 60 | 0% |
Cyprus | CY | 58 | 0% |
Bulgaria | BG | 57 | 0% |
Samoa | WS | 55 | 0% |
Finland | FI | 48 | 0% |
Slovakia | SK | 45 | 0% |
Estonia | EE | 37 | 0% |
Lithuania | LT | 37 | 0% |
Latvia | LV | 30 | 0% |
African Regional Intellectual Property Organization | AP | 12 | 0% |