Robert Reading, Head of Content Strategy at Clarivate:
“In the trademark space we see two interesting trends developing in 2022. Firstly, trademark filing activity has been setting records around the world each year since 2010 driven in particular by domestic growth in China and targeting of US and European trademark registers by Chinese applicants. If Q4 2021 is any indication, this growth trend is likely to stop in 2022 with major trademark registers seeing a decrease in trademark filing activity for the first time in over a decade. On top of strong signs that Chinese domestic trademark filing volume is falling in recent months, the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) announced sanctions in December 2021 that cancelled over 15,000 US Trademark records filed from China, sending a strong signal that the USPTO is looking to protect the register against questionable high-volume filers. This will have a significant impact on confidence in China among sellers considering applying for a US trademark simply to provide smooth access to online retail platforms.
The second trend that we will be monitoring in 2022 relates to a virtual world. When Facebook announced a rebrand to Meta in October 2021, the world started to take notice of a version of a proposed version of an online universe called the metaverse. A place where online experiences are supercharged by virtual reality and interactivity, the metaverse has the potential to significantly change the way brands interact with consumers, and might also impact trademark law. Fashion and luxury brands are already filing trademark applications in Class 9 for virtual goods. Already the most crowded class on most registers, if the virtual counterpart of every physical item is going to be filed in Class 9 going forwards, authorities will need to rethink the Nice Classification system. There is also the possibility that new, 3-D interactive logos – such as those adopted recently by Meta and Block (formerly Square) will require more modern trademark types to be introduced as they currently do not neatly fit into the existing categories.”
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