All the great things you can do with trademark data: Taking stock and looking ahead

Abstract

Firms increasingly rely upon trademarks, but management research exploiting trademark data is surprisingly limited. Reasons for this include data availability, awareness, and bias toward other sources, in particular patents. I demonstrate how imaginative scholars have used trademarks to capture several elements of how, when, and to what extent firms bring (new) products and services to the market. Their work can inspire further applications, particularly now that trademarks are becoming more strategically relevant for companies and as more data are becoming available. After taking stock of what has already been achieved, I look ahead to original research by discussing conceptual and methodological opportunities.

Editorial: why and when do firms trademark? Bridging perspectives from industrial organisation, innovation and entrepreneurship

“…Most often these are B2C markets (Reitzig 2004) and key examples include pharma, electronics and consumer goods. Service firms in markets characterised by strong information asymmetries, like financial, information and digital services, have also clear incentives to use trademarks, since trademarks secure the protection of important reputational assets (Castaldi and Giarratana 2018;Castaldi 2019).…”

“…Research on trademarks is gaining significant momentum 1 . According to Castaldi (2019), one of the challenges for further research is that we still miss a comprehensive theory of why firms choose to file trademarks and which contingencies explain specific strategies. At the same time, trademark research is growing within three distinct domains: industrial organisation (IO), innovation and entrepreneurship studies (see Table 1 for an overview).…”

“…Trademarks allow securing market positions by avoiding imitation and deterring market entry (Lunney, 1999, Appelt 2009, Fosfuri and Giarratana 2009. Relatedly, a key motive for firms to file and maintain trademark portfolios is that they represent assets (Castaldi 2019), with a clear impact on firm market value and profitability (Schautschick and Greenhalgh 2016). Trademark assets often complement technological assets Block 2011, Grazzi, Piccardo, andVergari 2019;Dosso and Vezzani 2017).…”

“…First, we develop a framework linking different types of motives to trademark suggested by the three perspectives. Second, we complement existing reviews of trademark research which have focused on economic studies (Schautschick and Greenhalgh 2016) or on management studies only (Castaldi 2019) and present an interdisciplinary review focusing on the important question of why firms trademark. Third, we offer an interdisciplinary agenda for future trademark research from the perspectives of IO, innovation and entrepreneurship research.…”

TM‐Link: An Internationally Linked Trademark Database

“…First, the operation of the economy, especially in relation to exporting and global value chains. Second, the branding and marketing strategies of firms, and third, the proficient operation of the trademark system with respect to its dynamic and static efficiency goals (Millot 2009; Schmoch and Gauch 2009; Nasirov 2018; Castaldi 2019).…”