The following is an edited transcript of my video The Value of a Trademark Registration.
I came across a fascinating article recently that used empirical data to show that registered trademarks have a tremendous financial value. The study was published by authors from the Nova School of Business and Economics in Portugal. The authors used data from the USPTO about specific trademarks, linked those to publicly held companies, and then merged that data with the stock market performance of the companies and the publication of their trademarks. Using the stock market reaction to the publication allowed them to quantify the dollar value of trademark approval or registration. According to their estimates and calculations, the median trademark was worth $22.5 million to these publicly traded companies (2020 $1 values).
They found evidence in support of two sources of the value: product innovation and product differentiation. This makes sense from our perspective, because the reason someone comes up with a great trademark and files to protect it is because they’re innovating by launching a business or launching something new, and then they’re choosing a great trademark to help differentiate from the competitors. This data shows that trademark registration makes a stronger foundation for a brand and provides immense value.
For a smaller business, of course, the value is probably not going to be worth $22 million. But regardless, the trademark registration has a real financial implication, not to mention the peace of mind, the security that it provides, and the strong foundation for building that business and brand. Thank you to these authors who wrote this and published this paper. I think it’s fascinating and really gets it something that I knew, but now we have data to support it.
