Mediaboss Marketing

More brands are taking note of social marketing, and they want to put their brand on it. That is leading to a new trend: that of brands trademarking not only logos, but social media hashtags. Hotel brand Marriott, for example, has trademarked #lovetravels, and chocolates brands Hershey has trademarked #gofor2. One-third (33%) of global hashtag trademarks are made by US brands (since 2010)

"Even though overall organisations are registering more hashtag trademarks than ever before, there has been a slowdown in the rate of growth in the U.S. market, possibly due to the time and effort it takes for success," says Rob Davey, senior director, Global Services, CompuMark. "But what the overall rise in global applications does indicate is that brands are seeing the value in going through the proper trademarking process in all spheres, including social media, to make sure they are protecting themselves from possible infringement and mitigating the associated risks."

Other interesting findings from the research include:

Brazilian and Indian brands are right behind the US for hashtag trademark applications US trademarks are now 28% of the market, but US companies still trademark more hashtags Colombia-based RCN Television S.A. registered the most trademarks (54) in 2016 Education and Entertainment Services rank as the top trademark registration class

Trademarks for Class 9 - computer software, gaming, peripheral devices - fell to the 15th most applications for trademarks last year with only 101.

Tags: advertising, branded hashtags, CompuMark, social marketing, trademark hashtags

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Study: More brands #trademarking - BizReport