Which Countries Are Growing Fastest in Trademark Filings?

Singapore-origin trademark filings at the USPTO grew 89% between 2020 and 2025. Not Singapore the country with 6 million people. Singapore the trademark jurisdiction, quietly becoming one of the fastest-growing sources of US filings while most coverage fixated on China's collapse.

That number anchors a bigger story. Trademark filing trends by country reveal three dynamics that played out simultaneously over the past six years: domestic US filings crashed and recovered, China filings fell 36% in a single year and only partially bounced back, and a cluster of APAC countries (plus a few European ones) grew steadily through the entire cycle. The headline number, 658,497 total filings in 2025, masks all three of these dynamics. The country-level data reveals them.

This analysis covers USPTO trademark filings by country of origin from 2020 through 2025, with 2026 year-to-date data through August. All data was pulled from Signa's production API using ISO 3166 alpha-2 country codes.

The Big Picture: USPTO Filings Are Climbing Again

The USPTO received 658,497 trademark filings in 2025. That is 17% above the 2022-2023 trough, when filings bottomed out around 563,000. It is still below the pandemic-era peak of 682,321 in 2021, but the trajectory is clearly upward.

The shape of the curve tells a compressed economic story. Filings surged during 2020 and 2021 as e-commerce accelerated and the cost of launching a brand dropped. They fell sharply in 2022, driven partly by macroeconomic cooling and partly by a crackdown on fraudulent Chinese filings (more on that below). They stabilized in 2023, ticked up in 2024, and climbed further in 2025.

The recovery is broad-based but uneven. US domestic filings went from 419,317 in 2020 to a low of 358,212 in 2023, then recovered to 403,958 in 2025. That is still 4% below the 2020 level. The US market recovered, but it did not return to its pandemic peak.

Foreign filings tell a different story. Strip out the US and China (which distort everything), and filings from the remaining countries grew in almost every year of the period. The growth was not a recovery from a dip. It was continuous expansion.

A closer look at the annual totals shows the structural shift. In 2020, US-origin filings accounted for 62% of all USPTO applications. By 2025, that share had dropped to 61%. That one-point move sounds small until you consider the denominator: at 658,000 total filings, each percentage point represents roughly 6,500 applications. Foreign filers are taking a larger slice of a growing pie, driven by the countries examined in the next section.

For a deeper look at overall filing volume patterns, see what 14 million USPTO filings reveal about 2026 trends.

The Fastest-Growing Countries

Growth rates vary widely. Singapore led all countries with 89% growth in USPTO filings between 2020 and 2025, followed by India at 75%, South Korea at 44%, Spain at 40%, and the Netherlands at 36%.

These are not small-base anomalies. South Korea filed 8,357 applications in 2025, making it the fifth-largest source of USPTO filings overall. India reached 2,217, up from 1,269 in 2020. Singapore hit 2,741. These are meaningful volumes growing at rates that will reshape the filing mix within a few years.

The table below shows filing volumes for key non-US countries ranked by 2025 volume, plus India and the US for context.

A few patterns stand out.

The growth is APAC-led but not APAC-only. Four of the top five fastest growers are in Asia-Pacific: Singapore, India, South Korea, and Japan. But France (+34%), Spain (+40%), and the Netherlands (+36%) are growing at rates that match or exceed most APAC countries. The narrative that "APAC is the growth story" is mostly right but not entirely. European filings are growing too, from a larger base.

The decliners are notable. Canada fell nearly 16%, from 10,127 to 8,535. It was the second-largest foreign filer in 2020, but the UK overtook it by 2025 and South Korea nearly closed the gap. Australia was essentially flat. The US itself declined 4%. These are mature markets where filing growth has stalled or reversed.

The new entrants matter. Vietnam appeared in the top 20 for the first time in 2024 with 1,572 filings. That is a small number in absolute terms, but it reflects expanding brand activity from Vietnamese companies entering the US market. India's trajectory (1,269 to 2,217, growing every single year in the dataset) suggests it will break into the top 10 foreign filers within two to three years if the current pace holds.

South Korea's rise is structural. Korean filings grew from 5,823 to 8,357, a 44% increase that lifted South Korea to the fifth-largest source of USPTO filings. Much of this growth is concentrated in technology and consumer electronics, particularly in Nice Classes 9 (software and electronics), 35 (business services), and 42 (technology services), consistent with the expansion of Korean tech and entertainment brands into US markets. The AI trademark boom has been particularly pronounced among Korean filers.

Hong Kong and China tell separate stories. The data tracks these as distinct jurisdictions (ISO codes HK and CN), and their trajectories diverge. China crashed and partially recovered (covered in the next section). Hong Kong grew 15.5% over the same period, with 2026 year-to-date numbers already approaching the full-year 2025 total. Hong Kong's growth likely reflects its role as a holding company jurisdiction for businesses across the region, not necessarily Hong Kong-based commercial activity.

The mechanism for many of these filings is the Madrid Protocol, the international treaty system that lets applicants designate the US through a single international application filed at WIPO. Countries with strong IP office infrastructure (Singapore, South Korea, Japan) tend to use Madrid heavily. Others file directly with the USPTO through local attorneys. The choice between Madrid and direct filing affects costs, timelines, and strategic flexibility.

The China Story: Crash, Crackdown, and Recovery

China-origin filings at the USPTO fell from 179,472 in 2021 to 114,905 in 2022. That is a 36% drop in a single year, and it was large enough to drag down the overall USPTO totals. The system-wide dip from 682,321 to 562,003 that same year was substantially a China story.

The crackdown was specific and coordinated. The USPTO and Chinese authorities targeted fraudulent filings and specimen fraud (where applicants submit fabricated evidence that a mark is actually used in commerce). Many originated from filing mills that submitted bulk applications with doctored specimens. The response included specimen audits, sanctions on repeat-offender filers, and tighter examination of Chinese-origin applications. The trademark squatter economy that had inflated filing numbers corrected sharply.

The trajectory since then has been partial recovery, not a return to peak. China-origin filings climbed from 114,905 in 2022 to 155,558 in 2024 before dipping slightly to 149,881 in 2025. The 2025 number is 16% below the 2021 peak, suggesting that the crackdown permanently removed a significant layer of speculative or fraudulent filings.

What remains is still enormous. At 149,881 filings in 2025, China is by far the largest foreign filer at the USPTO. The second-largest, the UK, filed 9,932. China files roughly 15 times more than any other foreign country. Even after the crackdown removed tens of thousands of questionable applications, legitimate Chinese filing activity dwarfs every other foreign market.

The 2026 year-to-date data (97,521 through August) annualizes to approximately 146,000, roughly in line with 2025. The crash-and-recovery cycle appears to have stabilized, with filing volumes settling at a level that likely reflects genuine commercial intent rather than speculative bulk filing.

One caveat: "China-origin" means the trademark owner's country is coded as CN in the filing data. It does not distinguish between Chinese companies filing to protect brands they sell in the US and holding companies that happen to be domiciled in China. The filing data captures jurisdiction, not motivation.

2026 Signals: What Year-to-Date Data Shows

Through August 2026, the USPTO has received 447,897 trademark filings. Annualized, that projects to approximately 672,000 for the full year, which would be the second-highest total on record, behind only 2021's 682,321.

The projection comes with a caveat. Annualizing eight months of data assumes filing rates remain constant through December, and they rarely do. Q4 historically sees a modest uptick as companies file before year-end deadlines, but macroeconomic conditions, fee changes, or policy shifts could alter the trajectory. Treat 672,000 as a reasonable estimate, not a forecast.

Within the year-to-date numbers, several country-level signals stand out.

Hong Kong is on pace to significantly exceed 2025. With 4,661 filings through August versus 5,133 for all of 2025, Hong Kong annualizes to roughly 6,990 for 2026. That would be a 36% year-over-year increase. Whether this reflects genuine expansion or a shift in holding company registrations is unclear from the filing data alone.

India continues its unbroken growth trend. At 1,395 through August (annualizing to roughly 2,090), India is pacing slightly below its 2025 full-year total of 2,217. Indian filings may skew toward the second half of the year, so the final number could still match or exceed 2025.

South Korea's pace bears watching. With 4,523 through August (annualizing to roughly 6,780), South Korea appears to be tracking below its 2025 full-year total of 8,357. Korean filings may be more heavily weighted toward Q3 and Q4, so the final number could still approach 2025 levels. Regardless, South Korea's structural growth over the five-year window (43.5%) is well established.

The APAC share of foreign filings continues to expand. Combining China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Australia, and Taiwan, APAC countries accounted for roughly 71% of foreign USPTO filings in 2025 (approximately 180,000 of 254,000 non-US filings). China still dominates that share, but the growth is coming from elsewhere in the region. Even if China's volumes stay flat, APAC's share will increase as South Korea, Singapore, and India grow.

The pattern is clear enough to matter for strategic planning. Companies conducting trademark clearance in contested classes should expect growing competition from APAC-origin marks, particularly in technology, consumer goods, and services categories.

Methodology

This analysis uses filing data from Signa's API, covering USPTO trademark applications grouped by the owner's country of origin. Country is determined by the ISO 3166 alpha-2 code recorded in the filing, which reflects the applicant's stated domicile at the time of filing.

The dataset covers full calendar years from 2020 through 2025 and year-to-date 2026 through August. Earlier years (2018-2019) are included in the total filing volume chart for trend context.

The analysis has several limitations.

Owner country reflects legal domicile, not necessarily headquarters or operations. A Delaware LLC owned by a London-based founder would appear as a US filing. A Hong Kong holding company for a Shenzhen manufacturer would appear as HK, not CN. This is a known limitation of any country-of-origin analysis.

Madrid Protocol designations are counted as filings. When a company in South Korea files a Madrid application through WIPO designating the US, that appears in the data alongside direct USPTO filings. This is consistent with how the USPTO counts applications but means "filings" includes both direct applications and international designations.

Annualized 2026 projections assume constant filing rates. Eight months of data is enough to identify directional trends but not precise enough for point estimates. Seasonal variation, policy changes, and economic conditions can shift Q4 volumes meaningfully.

Small-volume countries show high variance. Vietnam's appearance in the top 20 with 1,572 filings in 2024 is notable, but single-year spikes in smaller markets can reflect a handful of large portfolio filings rather than broad-based growth. Multi-year trends are more reliable signals than single-year jumps.

What These Trademark Filing Trends Mean

The countries growing fastest in USPTO filings today will shape tomorrow's competitive dynamics. A 75% increase in Indian filings and an 89% increase in Singaporean filings are not footnotes. They are signals that brand-building activity in these economies is expanding into the US market at rates that will change the clearance calculus for anyone filing in popular classes.

For teams conducting trademark searches, the practical implication is clear: a comprehensive search needs to account for growing volumes of marks from jurisdictions that were marginal five years ago. The likelihood of conflict with a Korean, Singaporean, or Indian mark in Class 9 or Class 35 is meaningfully higher in 2026 than it was in 2020.

The data also suggests that the post-2022 recovery is not simply a return to pre-crash conditions. The mix has shifted. China is smaller as a share of foreign filings. APAC (excluding China) is larger. European filings are growing steadily. The filing picture in 2026 is structurally different from 2020, even though the topline numbers are similar.

Signa's API aggregates filing data from 200+ trademark offices into one queryable interface. The same data behind this analysis, broken down by country, class, filing date, and status, is available through Signa's search and aggregation endpoints at signa.so.

Consult a trademark attorney for legal guidance specific to your situation. This analysis presents filing data and trends, not legal advice.