The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") has released 2018 World Intellectual Property Indicators Report ("Report"), suggesting record-breaking use of its international intellectual property filing services for patents, trademarks, and industrial designs, particularly in Turkey and China.

Noteworthy points about Turkey in the Report are as follows:

PATENTS

  • In 2017 a record number of 3,17 million patent applications were filed globally. China and Turkey demonstrated double-digit growths in terms of receiving applications with a 14,2% and 24,9% increase respectively, becoming the only two offices achieving double-digit growth. Turkey ranked 20th in 2017, a great improvement compared to its ranking in 2016 which was 23th.
  • 8,555 patent applications were filed in Turkey during 2017, with 1,900 patents granted. In addition, 3,320 utility models were filed, with 2,088 models registered.
  • The main drive behind Turkey's striking growth is the rise in the number of resident applications at 33%, which is the second fastest growth rate among the emerging markets after Indonesia.
  • In terms of the ratio of resident application to GDP in emerging markets, Turkey had the highest ratio with 448, followed, by a large margin, by Brazil with 186 and India with 174.
  • In the period from 2014 to 2016, while the developed and developing countries had a majority of their applications in computer technology, transport, pharmaceuticals and engineering, most applications in Turkey were filed in other consumer goods with 11,4%. 

TRADEMARKS

  • Trademark applications have increased by 30% in 2017 with an estimated 9,11 million trademark applications filed worldwide. China holds a leading position with the application count of over 5,7 million. Turkey ranks 9th in the class count among the top 20 offices with the most filing activity. 12 of such offices are high-income countries, six are in the upper-middle-income countries (including Turkey) and two of them are in lower middle-income countries.
  • 247,474 trademark applications were made in Turkey during 2017, with 257,054 trademarks registered.
  • Since 2004, the majority of the trademark applications made for the service class 35 (advertising, business management, business administrations, and office functions). In 2017, Nice class 35 is the number one again with a ratio of 11% of all among reported trademark filing activity by class. In Turkey, business services topped of the list of industry sectors, accounting for 21% of all trademark filing activity. A majority of the applications are from clothing and agriculture sectors.

DESIGN

  • In 2017, an estimated 945,100 design applications were filed worldwide. 56% of all designs in applications filed worldwide are made to the office of China. China was followed by the European Union Intellectual Property Office, Republic of Korea, Turkey (46,875) and the USA.
  • 46,875 design applications were filed in Turkey during 2017, with 44,995 applications granted.
  • The Republic of Korea had the highest number of designs per unit of GDP in 2017, followed by China and Turkey (1,938).

You may reach the full WIPO Report through this link.

Information first published in the  MA | Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by Moroğlu Arseven.

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