The rise of the Corona/Covid brands around the world

By Vikrant Rana, Bijit Das and Shubhankar Shashikant

Wake of opportunism in IP during pandemic

In the wake of one of the deadliest viral outbreaks being acknowledged as a global pandemic, opportunism has found its way through, even in the field of IP with various trademarks and domain names being filed and registered with respect to the novel corona virus.
A cumulative list of the total number of Trademark filings in each country are the following –

The following table incorporates just a handful of trademark filings, incorporating the term “COVID” at the start of February 2020 in the United States, to more than 40 trademarks filed globally by the end of March 2020 –

Data source: WIPO Global Brand Database

There has been an almost desperate rise in the filings pertaining to corona virus, with a total of 72 global filings made incorporating the term “corona” since January 1, 2020 with the United States leading with the number of applications filed, i.e. 55. The trademark applications filed, are not typically with respect to medical preparations or services as one would expect, but the trademarks being filed range from classes dealing with food items to clothing, to even bumper stickers and car accessories.
These speculative trademark filings aiming to capitalize on the coronavirus outbreak that the world is facing currently are being perceived negatively by various legal organisations across the globe. Even law firms in the United States have strongly condemned this action by the legal professionals calling the filings a scheme to get rich fast that often fails. The trend in filings for “corona” and “COVID” pertaining to the novel coronavirus are being attributed to applicants who believe that the “first to file” are the first to exploit This opinion by legal organisations is also fuelled by the description of the filings such as, “#COVIDLIVESMATTER” to be used on clothing articles; “CORONA COCKTAIL” filed in the class for beverages; or the Korean filing of “Corona Killer” with a device which is an aesthetic rendition of the coronavirus.

However, when looked at from a neutral point of view, trademarks truly have the potential to directly affect the applicant / proprietor’s capacity for making profit in the current scenario. In India, many sanitization products and protective gears were marketed under the name of coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19 and other variations. This directly correlates to trademarks, as India unlike the United States is a “first to use” country and do not require an official registration before using / marketing a product.
Although in light of the global pandemic, applicants need to realise that the foremost purpose of a trademark is to associate the product to its maker / manufacturer or any other origin of the product. The coronavirus related filings may gain momentum for now but are impractical in the long run and as opined by many legal experts, it is just a “get rich fast” scheme that is liable to fail on both the legal as well as the monetary front. This is because the marks filed are liable to be refused and with most of the affected countries observing a lockdown, any successful commercial exploitation of the mark and products thereto seems highly unlikely. Though initially because of the global pandemic, it will be easy for the consumer to retain/remember the product, however, the IP Office is likely to refuse registration of the mark as we have seen for many past instances in India, the Office does not accept applications solely arising out of a tragic event. For more information about past instances of proprietors trying to trademark a tragedy, please refer to out article published in the May/June edition of the World Intellectual Property Review over here.

Another issue with the speculative filings is that they are overshadowing genuine filings from the healthcare industry and diluting the mark and its potential use and attention in the market. Although, if trademarks are granted to relevant sectors such as health care and pharmaceuticals then these industries stand to profit and any new company small or big can overtake its competitors easily considering the unprecedented demand created by the global pandemic for cures and equipment.

Company Names comprising of the term “COVID”

The trend is not only limited to filing of trademarks, as we can see from the below table that new entities around the world are registering company names, bearing the word Covid –

Domain Names comprising of the term “COVID”

In India, domain names are following the footsteps of trademark filing and a table depicting a few domain names are as under:

The information provided in this article only goes to show the rising trend of filings and registrations pertaining to the novel corona virus and is a clear indication of the possible growth in future filings once the current global situation eases out. The anticipation as well as the current filings are showing potential of a market race that will soon begin in the wake of the global pandemic.

To view a list of our past publications about opportunistic trademark filings please refer to the articles below –

• The Prime Ministers’ brand: Rise of Trademark filing trend for NaMo’, click here to learn more.
• Making A Trademark Out of A Tragedy, click here to learn more.
• Celebrating Branding and endorsement, click here to learn more.
• Jumping abroad the Brexit Bandwagon, click here to learn more

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