Three-quarters of brands experienced trademark infringement in past year

Four in 10 companies report trademark infringement has increased

BOSTON, MA: January 18, 2018CompuMark, the industry leader for trademark research and protection, has announced the findings of its latest research that reveals the scale of global trademark infringement. The survey demonstrates that almost three quarters of brands (74%) experienced trademark infringement in the last year, with four in 10 saying infringement has increased.

Reporting on the impact of this trademark infringement in The Trademark Ecosystem: Insights from Intellectual Property Professionals around the World, customer confusion was identified as the biggest effect (44%), followed by loss of revenue (40%), reduced customer loyalty (34%) and damage to reputation (33%). One-third of companies said they had to change the name of one of their brands as a result of infringement, while more than half (56%) took legal action against third-party infringements.

“Our report shows that trademark filing is on the increase,” says Jeff Roy, President, CompuMark. “With the ease of doing business on a global scale, the continued emergence of new entrants into the market and the proliferation of additional channels, such as social media, to consider, finding a unique mark to register is harder than ever before.

“Brands will have to work harder than ever to combat infringement and mitigate the risks associated with it. As a result, the process of searching and watching trademarks is becoming increasingly important and will remain so into the future.”

Unsurprisingly, the research shows that the majority of trademark applications took place across products and services, logo and images, and company names. The survey also uncovered interesting international results around unusual trademark applications; trademark professionals in France showed a higher than average interest in trademarks for hashtags and sounds, while German respondents filed for more color and smell trademarks.

Professionals also identified a number of challenges that impact filing behavior, including time pressures, budgets, globalization and the lack of tools and resources. Bigger budgets (51%), better technology (49%) and more resources (48%) were frequently cited as the solutions to overcome these issues. Brexit was also identified as having an effect, with 22% of the sample saying they were filing more UK marks, and a further 31% filing more European Union (EU) marks.

The research was commissioned by CompuMark, a division of Clarivate Analytics, the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. It was conducted by Vitreous World and surveyed 300 trademark professionals from in-house and external legal teams across the USA, UK, Germany and France to understand the state of the industry and the challenges faced.

Download the report here.

About CompuMark

CompuMark provides the industry’s broadest range of trademark research and brand protection solutions. We enable trademark and brand professionals worldwide to launch, expand and protect strong brands through unmatched global content, expert analysis and tools, and best-in-class service.

Clarivate Analytics

Clarivate™ Analytics is the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including the Web of Science™, Cortellis™, Derwent™, CompuMark™, MarkMonitor® and Techstreet™. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission, to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit clarivate.com and follow us on Twitter @Clarivate.