Hashtag Trademarking on The Rise: Should You Be Trademarking Your Hashtag?

CompuMark, the industry leader for trademark research and protection, has announced the findings of its latest research into the trademarking of hashtags, with a global growth of 64% in 2016 from the previous year. Notable registrations from well-known international brands include #lovetravels (Marriott), #getthanked (T-Mobile), and #gofor2 (Hershey).

Since the first trademark application for a hashtag was made in 2010, there have been more than 5,000 applications, 2,200 of them in 2016 alone.

The research also shows that while global hashtag trademark applications are on the rise and the US remains the leader in the number of these marks applied for — 33% of all applications since 2010 — the country’s total share of applications in 2016 was down to 28%, compared with 35% in 2015. However, the US still registered the most hashtag trademarks in 2016 (608), followed by Brazil (226) and India (141) in second and third place.

“Even though overall organisations are registering more hashtag trademarks than ever before, there has been a slowdown in the rate of growth in the U.S. market, possibly due to the time and effort it takes for success,” says Rob Davey, Senior Director, Global Services, CompuMark.

“But what the overall rise in global applications does indicate is that brands are seeing the value in going through the proper trademarking process in all spheres, including social media, to make sure they are protecting themselves from possible infringement and mitigating the associated risks.”

The company that applied for the most hashtag trademark applications in 2016 was Colombian-based broadcaster RCN Television S.A. with 50 registrations related to its Grita Gol football programming.

Looking at trademark classes, three attracted the majority of applications. These included 594 in Class 41 (education and entertainment services, shows, sporting events, training), followed by 587 in Class 35 (advertising and administration, business consultancy, marketing, online retail, recruitment), and 512 in Class 25 (clothing, footwear and headwear).

While the top three classes remain the same, their ranking has changed. In addition, the fourth most popular class in 2015 — Class 9 (computer software, hardware, computer games, CDs, DVDs and MP3 players, electronic publications (downloadable) — fell to 15th spot with just 101 applications in 2016, down from 278 in the previous year.

Comments on CompuMark hashtag research

By Rob Davey —Senior Director, CompuMark, a brand of Clarivate Analytics

Why do you think there has been a rise for hashtag trademarking?

The social media sphere has grown substantially over the last few years and is now seen as an essential additional channel for brands. As a result, the tools associated with social media, such as the hashtag, are being used more and more — for brand awareness, customer engagement and promotions. Hashtags are being used to add value and once they become associated with a particular brand it’s important to protect them from misuse, or from falling into the hands of competitors.

What could be the repercussions for companies that haven’t trademarked their hashtag?

The repercussions of not trademarking a hashtag would be the same as infringement on trademarks of other kinds. If a competitor is using the same hashtag or one that is very similar, the result could be brand confusion in the marketplace and a loss of brand equity. It could also lead to litigation, something that can be both time and cost intensive.

Do you think the reasons behind trademarking these hashtags outweigh the cost and litigation process?

Again, the same can be applied to trademarking other elements, like brand names, slogans, etc. Regardless of the duration of use (long-term use associated with the brand, or short-term associated with a campaign, for example) it is always a good idea to perform the due diligence and register marks. This avoids any potential litigation in the future and gives brands the means to protect themselves should infringement occur. A hashtag is no different from any other trademark.

If you were to advise companies to trademark hashtags, which sector/ what companies would benefit most?

The research suggests that by far the most popular classes for hashtag trademarks include goods and services such as entertainment, online retail, advertising and clothing/fashion. This shouldn’t be a surprise as all of these goods are heavily promoted online and on social media. There is a particular connection between fashion and social media, especially Instagram, which will make protecting hashtags for Class 25 goods very important.

Can you think of any other aspects of social media that ought to be trademarked? /or any trademark ‘trends’ that may develop over the year?

My own opinion is that the rise of the hashtag trademark is not over. What started on Twitter less than 10 years ago is now very well established on Instagram, and we see Facebook and LinkedIn also adopting the hashtag, so I would expect this growth to continue. Social media user names are another area of concern which should be monitored as part of a comprehensive brand protection strategy. New social media should also be constantly reviewed (Snapchat and others are growing fast). For a global brand it is important to understand which social media platforms are important in the markets in which the brand is sold. China and Japan have very different social media platforms from the UK and USA. In addition, brands should be aware of how they are being represented in social games which use Augmented Reality such as Pokémon Go.

Are you surprised over the top three countries that registered the most hashtags? What reasons do you think are behind the fact these countries fall in the top three?

The USA is not a surprise and Brazil is a jurisdiction in which you have to apply for one trademark for every class, so is probably therefore a little higher than it would be if it had a multi-class registration system. On average, CompuMark sees 1.8 classes per application around the world in multi-class jurisdictions. France is a bit of a surprise as it is not a country you may think of as being particularly online focused. It is, however, a large trademark register compared to other similar sized countries, which will account for some of the scale. Looking at the data it appears 25% of hashtag applications in France include class 25, so maybe fashion is driving some of the hashtag volume on the French register.