There has been an 11.7% increase in trade mark applications and a 13.6% increase in registrations from 2015 to 2016. Reported in the Scottish Business News Network, ‘intellectual property specialists, Marks & Clark used the above quote. We can see this as just another indicator of the robust nature of the Scottish economy. Though much has been made of the 0.1% growth in the economy in Quarter 2, the MSM have quickly forgotten the 0.8% growth in the previous three months which was four times the UK figure. There have, of course, been many other indicators of health in falling unemployment, increasing employment, Scottish business enjoying its longest run of expansion in nearly two-and-a-half years, companies across Scotland seeing increased employment numbers alongside growing new business and orders and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) finding a majority of UK firms aiming to increase the number of highly-skilled jobs in the next few years. See:
Good news for Scotland’s economy
We also see, the Scottish Government working to make sure Scotland can face the uncertain post-Brexit future with some confidence. See:
In addition, we have evidence the Scottish Government knows what it’s doing in:
Returning to the trade mark applications, we had an increase from 2 448 to 2 736 (11.7%) In Wales, it was 1 372 applications in 2015, rising to 1 431 in 2016 (4%) and in Northern Ireland it was 508 to 565 (11.2%), and its registrations rose from 409 to 447 (9.3%). For the UK as a whole, the report only had the increase over the five years from 2011 to 2016. It was a 62% increase in that period so if we crudely assume an average, we get around 12 to 13% growth per year which suggest the Scottish growth is only slightly lower. Given the enormous concentration of economic activity in London and the South-East, that seems evidence of quite strong performance in Scotland.
Talking-up Scotland 