Friday, May 05, 2006

Worldwide Trademark Filing Cost Report [The Economist]

Each year, The Economist magazine publishes a "Big Mac Index" based on the theory of purchasing-power parity, under which exchange rates should adjust to equalise the cost of a basket of goods and services, wherever it is bought around the world. To make it simple, their basket includes just one McDonalds "Big Mac" hamburger. The cheapest burger in their chart for January 2006 was in China, where it costs $1.30, compared with an average American price of $3.15. The highest price was in Switzerland at $4.93.
In the spirit of identifying purchasing power parity for trademark applications, please feel free to contact me for an estimate of worlwide trademark filing costs by country for an application including three goods, in a single class, claiming one convention priority. According to IP Estimator software, these costs range from a low of $527 for Afghanistan to a high of $4,030 in the United Arab Emirates. Total costs add up to $281,596 with $177,572 for official/associate fees, $5,300 translation fees, and $98,722 in-house/miscellaneous.
Rodney D. Ryder

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