New Record for International Trademark Registrations in 2008

According to the WIPO's report, in 2008, WIPO received a record 42,075 applications under the Madrid system for the international registration of trademarks, representing an increase of 5.3 % over 2007. China became the most designated country in international trademark applications for the fourth consecutive year. In 2008, a Chinese enterprise, Zhejiang Medicine Company broke into top ten ranking for the first time. Applicants from Germany topped the list of top filers for the 16th consecutive year, followed by users in France, the United States of America (USA). China was ranked the eighth of the top filers, with 1585 international applications and a growth rate of 9.8% over 2007.

Users in Germany filed 6,214 international applications representing 14.8% of the total and a growth rate of 2%. Applicants in France accounted for 10% of the total filing 4,218 international applications representing 7.3% increase on figures for 2007. Businesses in the United States of America (USA) filed the third largest number of applications - 3,684 or 8,8% of the total number showing a slight decrease (-1.5%) over 2007.