Trademarks as Economic Indicators

Dechart LLP has released its Annual Report on Trends in Trademarks for 2003. The report finds a slight increase in trademark filing — indicating a moderate economic recovery.

The article was also covered in the New York Times (entitled “Patents as Economic Indicators”).

Although Dechart uses trademark data, others have contemplated the use of patent data as an economic indicator or a proxy for innovative activity.
Sources:
1. Crouch, D.D. and Crouch, H.L. (2003), “Environmentally Conscious Patent Histories,” Proceedings of Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing III, SPIE Proceedings 5262, 165-73.
2. Porter, M.E. and van der Linde, C. (1995), “Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate,” Harvard Business Review, September-October, 120-135.
3. Jaffe, A.B. and Palmer, K. (1997), “Environmental Regulation and Innovation: A Panel Data Study,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 79(4), 610-619.
4. Griliches, Z. (1990), “Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: A Survey,” Journal of Economic Literature 28, 1661-1707.
5. Kortum, Samuel (1993), “Equilibrium R&D and the Patent-R&D Ratio: U.S. Evidence,” American Economic Review, 83(2), 450-457.

Lawrence Solum’s Blog directed me to Petra Moser’s presentation of How Do Patent Laws Influence Innovation? Evidence from the Nineteenth-Century World Fairs.