Trade Mark Cluttering: An Exploratory Report

Abstract

This report explores the problem of "cluttering" of trade mark registers. The report consists of two parts:The first presents a conceptual discussion of “cluttering” of trade mark registers.The second part provides an exploratory empirical analysis of trade mark applications at the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the European trade mark office (OHIM).This part contains results of a descriptive and an econometric analysis.