Trade mark application numbers drop
New UK IPO statistics show a 19% fall in the number of trade mark applications made during the first half of 2022 compared to 2021, but international applications designating the UK are on the rise.
The UK Intellectual Property Office has published statistics for IP rights application and registration activity completed in the first half of 2022.
83,292 trade mark applications were made between January and the end of June, compared with 102,586 applications during the same period in 2021.
This equates to a drop of 19% year on year and contrasts markedly with the 70% increase in applications made in the first half of 2021 compared with 2020.
The overall decline in application numbers is an ongoing trend over the past 12 months, with the second half of 2021 seeing 94,052 applications.
The UK IPO put this surge down to the impact of Brexit and the boost in applications driven by businesses launched during the pandemic, although activity remains well above pre-2020 levels.
The total number of trade mark applications has risen every year over the past decade, with a notable acceleration from 2017 onwards and considerable jumps of 27% in 2020, and 43% in 2021 following the end of the Brexit transition period.
Requests for UK designations via the Madrid system continue to rise
Despite the overall slowdown in applications, the number of applications designating the UK via the Madrid System continues to rise – In the first half of 2022 it is up 23% compared to the same period in 2021.
This follows a 57% increase in UK designation via Madrid applications from 2020 to 2021, indicating the ongoing drive to secure intellectual property rights in the UK post-Brexit.
Design application figures mirror trade mark trends
Similar trends are discernible in design application figures. The number of design applications filed has fallen by 5% year on year, with 32,365 applications made in H1 2022.
However, this follows a 151% increase from the first half of 2020 to the same 2021 period and indicates that design filing activity is being sustained at a far higher level than was previously the norm.
The number of filings via the Hague System designating the UK has risen 46% compared with the same period in 2021.
Although this is a large increase, it is not at the same scale as previous year-on-year growth; in 2021 the number of UK designations rose 105% compared to 2020, and from 2019 to 2020 the increase was 112%.
UK IPO succeeds in drive to clear trade mark backlog
In early July, the UK IPO announced that it had succeeded in clearing its backlog of IP rights applications following a period of record demand.
In the second half of 2021, the number of registrations exceeded the number of applications, with 103,222 registrations compared to 94,092 applications.
This trend has continued into 2022, which saw 87,052 registrations against 83,292 applications from January to June.
Going forward, the UK IPO aims to issue examination reports within 10 days of filing.