The International Trademark Association recently published the investigation report that titiled “The Economic Contribution of Trademark-Intensive Industries in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippine, Singapore, and Thailand. The report points out that trademark-intensive industries contribute substantially to the GDP in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, increase employment opportunities in these five countries, and promote their activity in international trade.

Trademark-intensive industries refer to industries with higher-than-average amount of trademark registrations. In its investigation, INTA studied and estimated the direct and indirect contribution of trademark-intensive industries for the GDP and their shares in the total employments and in total export in those countries. The results suggested that, between 2012 and 2014, in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand trademark-intensive industries made direct contribution of 22% to 50% to the economies, took up 27% - 60% of total export, and made contribution of 13% to 29% to employment rates. 

The report indicated that trademark-intensive industries made 30.3% direct contribution to the economy of Malaysia, ranking only behind the 50% in Singapore. The contributions were 22%, 17% and 21 % for Thailand, Philippine, and Indonesian, respectively. Meanwhile, trademark-intensive industries made indirect contribution of 60% to the economy of Malaysia, which was the highest among the five. The contributions were 40%, 41%, 51% and55% for Thailand, Philippine, Indonesian, and Singapore, respectively. In terms of employment rate, trademark-intensive industries contributed by 13%, 24%, 15%, 26% and 29% in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippine, Indonesia, and Singapore, respectively. In terms of export shares, trademark-intensive industries contributed by 60% in both Thailand and Singapore. The contributions were 55%, 47% and 27% in Malaysia, Philippine, and Indonesia, respectively. 

The reporter learnt that INTA utilized principals of econometrics to quantify the “trademark effects” in every country, which was the economic increment created by each employer in the trademark-intensive industries. The reported showed that Thailand, Malaysia and Philippine had strong “trademark effects”. Trademark-intensive industries created the economic increment between 57% and 90% for these 5 countries per capita.