Trademarks data in ASEAN

The following data on trademark applications has been provided to the ASEAN secretariat by various SE Asian IP offices. NR percentages means Non-Resident i.e. foreign filings.

		2010	2011	2012
Indonesia	Multi class	53,196 (5% NR)	53,106 (NR = 5%)	62,455
Thailand	Single class	37,656 (NR = 34%)	38,950 (NR = 40%)	44,963
Philippines	Multi class	16,838 (NR = 47%)	18,611 (NR 43%)	20,202
Singapore	Multi class	30,481 (NR = 79%)	34,928 (NR = 81%)	36,401 (NR = 82%)
Vietnam	Multi class	28,237 (NR = 24%)	28,237 (NR = 21%)	29,578 (NR = 23% )
Malaysia	Single class	26,370 (NR = (50%)	26,833 (NR = 60%)

Trademark statistics are notoriously hard to interpret and compare. Some countries have multi class applications - like Philippines and Singapore. So naturally their count will be lower than the single class markets like Thailand. And it depends how the data is counted in each case too.  So the numbers are not very useful for comparison.
 

A few facts can be gleaned. Local Indonesian applicants file vast numbers of marks. Data from Indonesia's IPO is however notoriously unreliable and the IPO's count of foreign applicants is certainly far below the real number. However relatively low levels of FDI in the non resources part of the economy probably does equate to fewer foreign filings than in other countries (however not to the degree this data suggests).   

In general one can see an upwards trend everywhere. In addition another general trend suggested is that the more open the economy (Singapore, Malaysia), the higher the foreign filings. The more closed, or not yet attractive to consumer-focused foreign investors (Vietnam, Indonesia), the fewer the foreign filings appear to be.