Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

G4: Innovation and digitalisation

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Intellectual property refers broadly to the creations of the human mind. Intellectual property rights protect the interests of creators by giving them property rights over their creations.

Trade marks constitute means by which creators seek protection for their industrial property. Trade marks reflect the non-technological innovation in every sector of economic life, including services. In this context, indicators based on Trade mark data can provide a link between innovation and the market.

Trade marks such as words or figurative marks are an essential part of the “identity” of goods and services. They help deliver brand recognition, in logos for example, and play an important role in marketing and communication. It is possible to register a variety of Trade marks including words, other graphical representations, and even sounds. Rights owners have a choice of obtaining protection on a country-by-country basis, or using international systems.

This domain provides users with data concerning European Union Trade marks. European Union Trade marks refer to trade mark protections throughout the European Union. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is the official office of the European Union for the registration of European Union Trade marks and Designs.

A European Union Trade mark is an exclusive right that protects distinctive signs, valid across the EU, registered directly with EUIPO in Alicante in accordance with the conditions specified in the EUTM Regulations (Source: EUIPO).

European Union Trade marks are classified according to “International classification of goods and services - Nice classification for Trademarks”. A Trade mark application might be assigned to one or more classes of goods and services.

The International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks was established by an Agreement concluded at the Nice Diplomatic Conference, on June 15, 1957, was revised at Stockholm, in 1967, and at Geneva, in 1977, and was amended in 1979.

The Agreement establishes a classification of goods and services for the purposes of registering trade marks and service marks (the Nice Classification). The trade mark offices of the contracting States must indicate, in the official documents and publications in connection with each registration, the numbers of the classes of the Classification to which the goods or services for which the mark is registered belong.

The Nice Agreement concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks is composed of 45 classes of goods and services. Classes 1 to 34 classify goods and classes 35 to 45 classify services. EUIPO applies the 10th edition of the Nice Classification as from 1 January 2012

For further information on Niece Classification for Trade marks visit WIPO web site at http://www.wipo.int/classifications/nivilo/nice/index.htm?lang=EN

The regional breakdown of the countries is based on the:

1. NUTS classification (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics). For more details, please consult NUTS - Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics,

2. Agreements between Eurostat and Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries as well as between Eurostat and EFTA countries, for which statistical regions have been coded in a way that resembles NUTS. For more details, please consult Statistical regions for EU Candidate and EFTA countries.

All sectors.

For the calculation of totals for European Union Trade marks full counts are applied. Fractional counting is not applied because although an application can be assigned to one or more owners, the first owner of the application is taken into account for the assignment of the geographical origin of the application.

Trade marks are classified according to “International classification of goods and services - Nice classification for Trade marks”. A Trade mark application might be assigned to one or more classes of goods and services. Regarding the calculations by Nice classes, full counts are applied. Hence an application of Trade mark is counted for each class that is assigned separately.

For the calculation of indicators on co-ownership the method of fractional counting is applied. Hence, if one Trade mark application has more than one owner then will be proportionally assigned to the distinct countries of the owners.

Data on European Union Trade marks are provided in separate tables for application and registrations.

Total number of  application and registration data by receive year are available at the national and regional level

Both application and registration data by receive year are available at the national level as follows:

• Per million population
• Per GDP(billions of Euro)
• Per GDP(billions of PPS€ )
• By class of goods and services
• By number of classes
• By nature of trade mark
• By type of trade mark
• By status in the registration process
• By legal status of the applicant
• Relative to the performance of other countries in applying or registering trade marks by class

Separate tables are also available for European Union Trade mark application data at the regional level as follows:

• Per million population
• Per GDP(billions of Euro)
• Per GDP(billions of PPS€ )

Separate tables are also available for European Union Trade mark lifecycle by receive year at national level for:

• European Union Trade mark publications relative to the total number of European Union Trade mark applications
• European Union Trade mark registrations relative to the total number of European Union Trade mark applications
• European Union Trade mark renewals relative to the total number of European Union Trade mark applications

Separate table at national level are also available for :

• European Union Trade mark registrations
• European Union Trade mark publications
• European Union Trade mark renewals
• Cooperation for European Union Trade marks by receive year

The statistical unit is the protection activity within a country's borders that results in application to EUIPO for registering Trademarks.

The statistical population that is the base for European Union Trade mark indicators is Trade mark applications to EUIPO.

EU Member States, Candidate Countries, EFTA countries, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, United States, rest of the world.

Data on European Union Trade marks are given at the national and the regional level (NUTS, NUTS2 and NUTS3). 

The regional breakdown of the countries is based on the:

1. NUTS classification (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics). For more details, please consult NUTS - Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics,

2. Agreements between Eurostat and Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries as well as between Eurostat and EFTA countries, for which statistical regions have been coded in a way that resembles NUTS. For more details, please consult Statistical regions for EU Candidate and EFTA countries.

The series for European Union Trade marks starts in general in 1996 and ends up to 2016. Data for 2016 are provisional.

Not applicable.

Besides total number and percentages these figures are also related to million inhabitants, in percentage of GDP in billions of Euro and billions of PPS in Euro.

The calendar year.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Not applicable.

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In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Annual data.

News releases on-line.

Not applicable.

Please consult free data on-line or refer to contact details.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No quality documentation is officially available for European Union Trade mark statistics.

Quality assurance for IPR statistics is dependent on the primary sources.

Not applicable.

IPR statistics are recognised to be part of the indicators that allow to measure R&D output and inventive activity, including statistics for the Sustainable Developement Goals (SDG).

The number of downloads from Eurostat's reference database suppose that users find data relevant.

The completeness is linked to the length of the protection procedure.

Overall the accuracy is good, depending however on the primary sources.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

2-3 months after the end of the reference period data are quite definitive.

Eurostat receives 1 annual updates (spring of calendar year) of EPO data.

Good but for countries with very few data percentages are not comparable across countries.

Good but users should take note that decreasing numbers for the last years are due to the length of the registration procedure and not necessarily due to a lower protection activity.

The EUIPO also produces indicators and statistics related to European Union Trade marks.

Not applicable.

The EUIPO database contains a huge amount of raw data on European Union Trade marks. Loading and calculating the ipr indicators necessitate important resources (several men-months).

Data are revised for the whole time series at each update.

The production of IPR statistics is based on a single data source EUIPO database for European Union Trade marks.

For European Union Trade mark data: The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

For Patents the European Patent Office (EPO). 

For derived indicators:

Million inhabitants refer to the population the 1st of January each year, and the main source is the Eurostat collection of Population.

GDP data are based on the national accounts published by Eurostat and IMF for non European countries.

The raw database at EUIPO is updated continuously but Eurostat receives 2 annual updates (spring and autumn of calendar year) of EUIPO data.

Done at the EUIPO and EPO. 

Done at the EUIPO and EPO. 

Done at Eurostat based on EUIPO and EPO data.

Not applicable.

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