Trademark applications, total - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Trademark applications filed are applications to register a trademark with a national or regional Intellectual Property (IP) office. A trademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain goods or services as those produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise. A trademark provides protection to the owner of the mark by ensuring the exclusive right to use it to identify goods or services, or to authorize another to use it in return for payment. The period of protection varies, but a trademark can be renewed indefinitely beyond the time limit on payment of additional fees.

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Intellectual Property Indicators and www.wipo.int/econ_stat. The International Bureau of WIPO assumes no responsibility with respect to the transformation of these data.

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Development Relevance: A trademark is a distinctive sign that identifies certain goods or services as those produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise. The holder of a registered trademark has the legal right to exclusive use of the mark in relation to the products or services for which it is registered. The owner can prevent unauthorized use of the trademark, or a confusingly similar mark, so as to prevent consumers and the public in general from being misled. Unlike patents, trademarks can be maintained indefinitely by paying renewal fees. The procedures for registering trademarks are governed by the rules and regulations of national and regional IP offices. Trademark rights are limited to the jurisdiction of the authority that registers the trademark. Trademarks can be registered by filing an application at the relevant national or regional office(s), or by filing an international application through the Madrid system. Many offices in middle- and low-income economies have considerably high numbers of trademark applications compared to other forms of IP, showing the emphasis placed on trademark rights in these markets.

Limitations and Exceptions: Detailed components of trademark filings are available at the World Bank at http://data.worldbank.org. Data includes applications filed by direct residents (domestic applicants filing directly at a given national or regional intellectual property [IP] office); direct nonresident (foreign applicants filing directly at a given national or regional IP office); aggregate direct (applicants not identified as direct resident or direct nonresident by the national or regional office); and Madrid (designations received by the national or regional IP office based on international applications filed via the World Intellectual Property Organization-administered Madrid System). Data are based on information supplied to World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by IP offices in annual surveys, supplemented by data in national IP office reports. Data may be missing for some offices or periods. Trademark registrations are exclusive rights, issued to an applicant by an IP office. For example, registrations are issued to applicants to make use of and exploit their trademark or industrial design for a limited period of time and can, in some cases, particularly in the case of trademarks, be renewed indefinitely.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: A trademark is a distinctive sign identifying goods or services as produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise. A trademark protects the owner of the mark by ensuring exclusive right to use it to identify goods or services or to authorize another to use it. The period of protection varies, but a trademark can be renewed indefinitely for an additional fee.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual