Trademarks are helping to support economic growth in middle income countries, a new report has indicated.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), such nations filed a higher number of trademark applications per gross domestic product than high income countries such as China, Germany and the US.
Chile led the way for the midfield runners, with 218 trademark applications per billion dollars GDP in 2010.
Rapid trademark growth was also witnessed in a number of developing countries, including Argentina (17.1 per cent), Madagascar (16 per cent), Panama (24 per cent) and South Africa (13.9 per cent).
However, a number of Eastern European countries such as such as Estonia (-15.1 per cent), Georgia (-13 per cent) and Lithuania (-14.8 per cent) experienced considerable declines in applications.
Last year, WIPO reported that trademarks are the most common form of intellectual property, ahead of patents, copyrights and service marks.