More National IPR Applications in Hungary in 2020

The Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO) recently published its annual report for 2020, which shows an increase in the number of national applications for most types of IP rights and a decrease in the number of applications for European patent validations and international trademarks designating Hungary.

Compared to 2019, the number of national patent applications increased by 1.3%, the number of supplementary protection certificate applications by 1.8%, the number of design applications by 4.5% (with the number of designs within those applications increasing by 22.6%), and trademark applications by 2.4%. However, the number of applications for European patent validations and international trademarks designating Hungary showed a significant decrease of 11% and 27%, respectively.

At the end of 2020, the number of valid patents in Hungary was 33,566, which is 5% higher than the previous year. The numbers of valid national utility models and trademarks remained stable at 837 and 54,251, respectively, while the number of designs decreased by 9.4% to 3,075. The number of international trademarks designating Hungary decreased by 4% to 80,017. The number of EU trademarks (EUTMs), which are also valid in Hungary, is increasing from year to year – in 2020, the EUIPO received 176,000 EUTM applications (10.2% more than in 2019) and registered more than 153,000 EUTMs (9% more than in 2019).

The annual report also highlights the progress made by the HIPO in digitalizing its operations – during the COVID-19 pandemic, the HIPO encouraged e-filing, e-communication and the use of electronic databases. 60% of trademark applications were filed electronically in 2020, as opposed to 45% in 2019.

Prepared by: Erika Farkas

For more information, please contact hungary@petosevic.com.

Source: Hungarian Intellectual Property Office website