Noticeable increase from China: These companies register the most brands in Switzerland

lonely leader

Once again, Sandeep Malhotra and his company S. Malhotra & Co. from Baar ZG. AG filed the most trademark applications. The former banker submitted 295 applications, up 60 from last year. In the meantime, it appeared to have ceased its activities. We haven’t read anything about him for a long time, but it turns out that this was just a short break for the entrepreneur.

Malhotra is extremely hardworking: as analysis of Wirtschaft.ch data shows, he has registered 1,805 trademarks in the last five years. His self-proclaimed goal: to secure Swiss brands for consumer goods with an eye on the Asian market, as he once told the “Handelszeitung”. However, Malhotra is yet to grab attention with much real work.

Martin Heller from Zurich rose to second place, including his own companies International Consulting Services M. Heller (ICS) and Swiss Watch Brands GmbH (SWB). Heller’s entries target, among other things, the watch industry. The bronze medal went to Novartis, which could not place second for the first time in years.

Behind it is a new participation and the first company from abroad: Belgian Gaming 1 made its presence felt in this country for the first time at the end of 2021 and registered an impressive 109 brands in 2023. One of the notable new names in the top 10 was Swiss watch brand Rolex, with a total of 44 trademark applications, more than double the number of the previous year. Until 2020, Rolex had never reached double digits.

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More and more applications from China

Most of these applications for Swiss trademark registration come from Switzerland. The ratio has remained around three quarters since the “Handelszeitung” started this analysis. There is also a stable distribution of roles in the ranking: the USA is in twelfth place with 7 percent, followed by Germany in third place with 4.5 percent.

But behind this is the rise of China’s economic power: as recently as 2016, only 1.2 percent of trademarks registered in Switzerland were from companies based in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong, which is registered separately). However, by 2023, the value will rise to 2.2 percent, placing China in fourth place for three years. In contrast, industrialized countries Great Britain (from fourth to sixth) and Japan (from sixth to ninth) fell.

Belgium’s current entry into the top 10 is thanks to a single company: the aforementioned Gaming 1. 109 of the 142 Belgian applications came from the Liège-based company. According to its own information, the gaming company employs 1,500 people worldwide, 490 of whom are at its headquarters, and had annual sales of 275 million euros in 2020. Gaming 1 includes casino chains under the “Circus” brand and online gaming exchanges such as “Poker Stars”.