The UK Intellectual Property Office (formerly known as The Patent Office), issued its Annual Review recently, reporting on the Office's progress from last year, and its new initiatives and services.

Some interesting points emerge from the Facts and Figures section summarising the Office's trade mark registration activity for 2006, giving a nosy neighbour's peek through the net curtains at who is registering what and where…

"The UK leads the European pack on the number of trade mark applications filed according to country of residence – a total of 65,305.  This is up on the 2005 figure of 55,600.  Of the UK applications filed, 44,459 successfully made it through the procedure to registration.  Impressive?  Even more so when compared against our European counterparts.  Germany filed 442, France 387, Netherlands 368, Belgium 78, Spain 62, Italy 50, Austria 39 and Greece a mere 22."

The third largest category keeping the UKIPO busiest was class 35 for "advertising, business management and administration services".  A total of 4,169 marks were registered in this class in 2006, up on 2005's figure of 3,938 marks. 

At the lead of the top ten companies who have had most trademarks granted in 2006, Imperial Chemical Industries is first at 197, followed by AKZO Nobel Coatings International at 130, Unilver plc at 89, and Glaxo Group plc at 76.  In fifth place are the somewhat less well known but evidently very active trade mark proprietors Jonathan Dormer and Mandy Dormer, from Aberdare in Wales.  Their 64 trademarks include registrations for "TOPWASH", "ZIPPER", and the recently published "GIVE IT SOME GRUNT!" and predominantly relate to class 3 goods such as laundry, cleaning and skin care products.

Finally, once companies have gone to the bother of filing registrations, it seems they generally want to renew them.  Marks can be renewed on their 10th anniversary and every 10 years after that – indefinitely.  In 2006, 30,091 registrations (out of a total of 59,307 renewable registrations) were renewed by application, and 10,875 were renewed by adding an additional class. 

Why this matters:
Brands are incredibly valuable commodities, and companies that have invested in creating, marketing, managing and exploiting those commodities want to protect them as much as possible, for as long as possible, and for as little cost as possible.  The UK trade mark registration process is an organised, relatively cheap and fast procedure for protecting brands, and the smart money is taking full advantage of this. Are you doing the same