GENEVA — L’Oréal retained its ranking as the top filer of international trademark applications last year with a total of 160, down from 177 filed the year before, a report by the World Intellectual Property Organization said.
However, some other leading brands in the fashion and beauty sectors posted gains including Japan’s Shiseido, Abercrombie & Fitch Europe SA, and Richemont International SA.
The WIPO data show that Shiseido filed 92 applications, up from 90 in 2021, while Abercombie and Fitch Europe SA made 51 filings, up from 36 a year earlier. Richemont International SA registered 35 international filings, up from 23 in 2021.
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The filings data compiled by WIPO also revealed that Tommy Hilfiger Licensing BV made 29 filings; Hermès International, 25; On Clouds GmbH, 20; Louis Vuitton Malletier, 19; Chanel Srl, 18; H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB, 18; Ferrari SpA, 14; Cartier International AG, 13; Parfums Christian Dior (Societe Anonyme),12; Givaudan SA, 12, and Maserati SpA, 12.
Following the exceptional growth of 15 percent in 2021, overall the use of the international trademark system for brand protection in 2022 declined by 6.1 percent, to about 69,000 applications filed, and represented “the largest drop since 2009,” WIPO said.
Asked how some luxury brands bucked the downward trend and posted increases in international trademark filings, Carsten Fink, WIPO chief economist, told WWD, “This may have been driven by strong consumer spending following the relaxation of the COVID-19 pandemic containment measures.”
WIPO economists said the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2021 “prompted firms to introduce new goods and services which helped fuel the exceptional growth in international trademark protection.”
In 2022, U.S.-based firms, WIPO said, filed the largest number of applications with 12,495, down from 13,282 the year before, and retained the title as the country with the most applications, followed by Germany (7,695), China (4,991), France (4,403) and the U.K. (4,227).