As 2017 starts to close and companies are putting together their 2018 budgets, we thought it was a good time to pause and look back at the 2017 trademark year. Year to date, 594,107 new applications were filed, which represents a 12% increase from this time in 2016. There have also been 327,314 new registrations issued, bringing the total number of live registrations in the USPTO database to 2,293,802. The majority of the registrations issued in 2017 were on a domestic basis, followed by a foreign basis, and finally based on the Madrid Protocol.
The increased number of applications filed in 2017 is not surprising since companies generally invest in expanding portfolios when the economy is doing well instead of trying to protect what they have. Given the improving nature of our economy, 2018 is likely to surpass 2017 in total number of new applications.
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