The Benefits of the Madrid System for Franchisors

How is demand for WIPO’s international trademark system (Madrid) being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic? That was one of the questions the WIPO Singapore Office discussed during a presentation on trademark trends and challenges for brand owners as part of the Franchising & Licensing Asia 2020 conference. In excess of 50 franchisees and franchisors for joinied the session

Often cited as a valuable source of data in assessing global business confidence, WIPO’s up-to-date filing statistics for 2020 reveal that Madrid filings are currently tracking at 86% of target for the period of January to September 2020.

The only time in the previous 15 years that WIPO recorded negative growth over a year in the use of the international trademark system was 2009. That year saw a 13.8% drop in filings from 2008 due to the impact of the global financial crisis. Clearly, the events of 2007 and 2008 resulted in the drop in 2009 – will we see a similar outcome in 2021?

For a complete view of the evolution of WIPO’s global intellectual property services and its financial performance on a month by month basis, view the dashboard.