Trademark applications increased by 31.1%! Korea's delivery and other industries are developing rapidly

Due to the impact of the new coronavirus, trademark applications in South Korea's food service industry related to packaging and delivery increased significantly last year.

According to statistics from the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 18th, by 2020, the number of trademark applications for catering services related to packaging and takeout, such as home delivery catering, packaged sales catering, and takeout food services, reached 13,770, an increase of 31.1% over the previous year.

Due to increased social distancing, the number of people working from home has increased, students have increased non-face-to-face remote classes, and have not been dining out and private tutoring.

It is understood that the number of applications for "home delivery catering industry" increased by 66.0% from 13,280 in 2019 to 22,047 in 2020. In addition, the "takeaway food service industry" also increased from 9,276 in 2019 to 14,742 in 2020, an increase of 58.9%.

In contrast, the cafe business, restaurant and cooking reservation business declined by 28.7% and 18.2% respectively, indicating that their operations are currently becoming difficult due to the impact of the epidemic.

Looking at the catering industry as a whole, there were 16,493 cases in 2017, 17,545 cases in 2018, and 18,933 cases in 2019, with an average annual increase of about 4%. Last year there were 22,383 cases, a sharp increase of 18.2%, the largest increase in the past five years.

According to the application status last year, there were 16,093 applications from individuals, accounting for 71.9%, and 6,290 applications from companies, accounting for only 28.1%. From a regional perspective, the metropolitan area accounted for 66.6%, the highest proportion, and the number of applications from Daejeon and Chungcheong areas was 1,456, accounting for 6.5% of the total.

Kim Kwang-seop, an examiner at the Chemical Food Trademark Examination Division of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, said : "The increase in trademark applications related to packaging and delivery may be the result of the catering industry practitioners actively responding to the changes in the overall environment under the epidemic."

We all know that trademarks are very important to enterprises. Trademarks are both the logo of an enterprise and the cultural expression of an enterprise.

As a type of intellectual property, trademarks are a means for enterprises/individual businesses to protect their own brands. Once an infringement dispute occurs, a trademark can help them obtain legal assistance more quickly. This is also the biggest reason for the continuous increase in trademark registrations in recent years.

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