A couple of years ago, the globe was alarmed by the coronavirus epidemic, which pushed individuals to adapt to unusual circumstances. The return to the “new normal” had already been canceled once due to the omicron variation.
During the epidemic, a lot has transpired in the realm of intellectual property assets. We will address these, possibly somewhat surprising, adjustments, with the first part focusing on IP protection activities and its impacts during the coronavirus outbreak. In the second section, I’ll discuss company IP cultures, which are becoming an increasingly important aspect of corporate IP strategy. The series’ third and final portion is devoted to IP concerns related to sustainable development.
The world has become increasingly IP-intensive
In terms of intellectual property rights, one of the clearest surprises of the coronavirus outbreak has been the tremendous amount of trademark and patent applications, notwithstanding the pandemic’s uncertainty. Several national and international registration agencies have indicated that the number of applications filed is at an all-time high.
High IP protection activity may be seen as part of a bigger worldwide trend, since WIPO records reveal that trademark and patent applications were obviously submitted more throughout the world during the epidemic than in previous years, according to WIPO reports. The willingness to safeguard IP assets in Finland has not shown symptoms of plateauing until the second half of 2021, but the growing trend at the EU level and internationally appears to be continuing.
Despite significant financial support during the pandemic, the most logical explanation for the high number of IP applications may be that dealing with the pandemic has simply forced companies to innovate: ways of working and communicating have changed – perhaps permanently – not to mention unprecedented levels of R&D investment to overcome the pandemic. With these considerations in mind, it’s only natural that new breakthroughs have followed, with digital and medicinal items, as well as commercial services, featuring prominently in IP application statistics.
Another interesting figure shown by the statistics is the Chinese IP activity. This is evident not only in the number of applications submitted with the Chinese registration authority but also in the number of applications made by Chinese companies with other nations’ registration agencies. In terms of statistics, China has the majority of the top spots, with the United States coming in second and Germany third. This may be explained in part by the growth of the Chinese economy, but whatever the explanation, Chinese enterprises’ IP activity is now a factor that influences the operations of many national businesses as well as those operating in foreign markets. Data’s value and IP protection have been debated for years, which is why issues about trade secret protection, and trade secrets in general, have taken on new significance during the epidemic.
Another issue raised by rising IP activity is the potentially amusing-sounding concern of trademarks running out. According to one survey, almost 75% of the top 20.000 English terms belong to a registered EU trademark, with the remainder having negative connotations. Enterprises should pay significantly more attention to third-party trademarks when developing new product launches and market conquests. Failure to do so might result in legal action or a name change, which could be interpreted as a sign of commercial issues.
The numerous issues raised by a large number of trademark registrations can, of course, be avoided in a variety of ways. Some examples include the necessity for considerably more specific descriptions of products and services, as well as the establishment of administrative cancellation of trademarks.
In addition to exploiting the aforementioned loopholes, succeeding in a more IP-intensive world necessitates businesses to better monitor IP rights (for example, to prevent infringing trademarks from being registered as the aforementioned EU trademarks) and, more broadly, to value and use their own IP assets. According to the data presented above, several firms have taken advantage of the pandemic to develop new products and improve the value of their own intellectual property portfolios. So, if you haven’t already done so in your firm, isn’t this the time to beef up your IP as well?
The list of Global IP Firms can be found here.