We are all aware that the pandemic hasn't necessarily led to a decrease of work across the board. One group of people who have been particularly busy are the staff at EUIPO.
EUIPO received a record number of EUTM filings in 2020 - over 175,000* in a single year. This is an annual increase of more than 10%! which is remarkable given the impact of the pandemic on business during the year. Most of the growth came in the second half of the year, and EUIPO says it was led “by a significant increase in Chinese demand”. The growth was largely in applications covering medical, personal and public hygiene, entertainment and household-related goods.
The UK IPO has not yet published its annual statistics for 2020, but it has also seen considerable growth in trade mark applications in the past few years, partly due to Brexit. There were over 123,000 UK applications in the first 11 months of 2020. Watch this space for the final numbers.
*176,987 if we're being precise
To find out more contact Rosie Burbidge, Intellectual Property Partner at Gunnercooke LLP in London - rosie.burbidge@gunnercooke.com