Trademark-intensive industries lag behind Asean peers – survey

The economic contribution of trademark-intensive industries in the Philippines pales in comparison to other countries in Southeast Asia, a new impact study released yesterday by the International Trademark Association (INTA) showed.

The INTA study revealed that the direct contribution of trademark-intensive industries to Philippines gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 17 percent, the lowest among five key ASEAN countries covered by the report.

Direct contribution of trademark-intensive industries to the GDP of Singapore and Malaysia were highest at 50 percent and 30.3 percent, respectively.

In terms of indirect contribution to GDP, trademark-intensive industries accounted for 41 percent in the country, second lowest behind Thailand’s 40 percent.

The INTA defined trademark-intensive industries as those industries that have “an above-average use of trademarks per employee.”

Trademark-intensive industries are regarded as the most successful companies, paying their employees 30 percent more.

“As with all industries, the contributions of trademark-intensive industries are both direct and indirect. The direct contributions are defined, for example, in terms of the employment, output and value added generated by any particular trademark-intensive industry. Indirect contributions reflect the fact that there are interdependencies, through the purchase and sale of inputs, between trademark and non-trademark-intensive industries,” it said.

In terms of employment, trademark-intensive industries represented 15 percent of the country’s total workforce.

Trademark-intensive industries in the Philippines likewise comprised 47 percent of the country’s share of exports, the report stated.

For the Philippines, the main trademark-intensive sector is manufacturing while information and communications, and construction activities are the other notable trademark intensive subsectors.

“Econometric analysis suggests a strong trademark effect in the Philippines – moving from a non-trademark-intensive industry to a trademark-intensive one sees value added per worker increase by around 100 percent,” the report said.

Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines director general Josephine Santiago said the outcome of the study could be used to improve the way the country does its policies.

“We have been emphasizing the contribution of intellectual property, including trademarks, to the country’s economic development. We welcome this evidence-based study by INTA because it shows that there is a correlation between trademarks and economic development based on hard data. We hope that with a National Intellectual Property Strategy, which will be completed next year, we can further engage our stakeholders in making better use of the trademark system and contribute to economic development,” Santiago said.