The number of international trademark rejections fell from 15,851 in July to 15,126 in August and most recently to 14,417 in September.
The countries that issued the most number of refusals over the last three months are listed in the table below.
| Country | July | August | September | Total number of refusals issued per country |
| Canada | 1848 | 1967 | 1631 | 5,446 |
| USA | 1952 | 2122 | 598 | 4,672 |
| China | 1855 | 1418 | 1359 | 4,632 |
| Japan | 1108 | 968 | 1093 | 3,169 |
| Mexico | 929 | 773 | 802 | 2,504 |
It`s worth noting that after reaching 2,122 in August and 1,952 in July, the number of rejections issued in the United States of America in September reduced to 598.
Contrary to the global trend, refusals have increased in the Middle East and North Africa region. 158 refusals were issued in the MENA region in September compared to 136 in August and 75 in July.
According to the table below, Egypt has issued the most rejections (156), followed by Syria with 70 rejections, Oman with 44 rejections issued in the last three months, Morocco, Algeria, and Sudan with 39, 36, and 19 rejections, respectively.
In the past three months, Tunisia and Bahrain each only issued three refusals.
It’s also important to note that since joining the Madrid Protocol, United Arab Emirates has not issued any rejections.
| Country | July | August | September | Total number of refusals issued per country |
| Egypt | 41 | 71 | 44 | 156 |
| Syria | 12 | 9 | 49 | 70 |
| Oman | 0 | 2 | 42 | 44 |
| Morocco | 10 | 18 | 11 | 39 |
| Algeria | 11 | 24 | 1 | 36 |
| Sudan | 1 | 12 | 6 | 19 |
| Bahrain | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Tunisia | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| United Arab Emirates | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The number of refusals given globally, as you can see, varies from one month to another, so let’s wait and see what the figures will be in the next months.
Feel free to reach out to one of our experts in trademarks, GCC and the entire MENA region for maintaining your international trademark applications and responding to rejection.
