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On Friday, March 18, 2010, the World Intellectual Property Organization published statistics comparing 2009 trademark filings under WIPO?s Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks ("Madrid") to filings made in 2008. In total, and as noted in the WIPO article available HERE, Madrid filings decreased 16% in 2009, with several countries reporting double-digit decreases. For example, countries in the top 40 by total number of filings such as (in order by number) Germany, Benelux, Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Portugal, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Greece, Lithuania, Belarus, Monaco, and Romania all had more than 20% fewer filings, with Portugal having the largest percentage decrease at 60.8%. A number of countries had more Madrid filings in 2009 as compared to 2008, such as (in order of total number of filings) the European Union (3.1%), Japan (2.7%), the Republic of Korea (33.9%), Hungary (14.5%), Croatia (17.5%), and Singapore (20.5%). The United States filed 13.1% fewer applications in 2009 than in 2008. Complete statistical data for the top 40 2009 filing countries dating back to 2005 are available at the link referenced above.

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