Inside Trademarks Trademark Analytics, Research & Strategy

Virtual Trademark Trends 2005-2009: Virtual Goods, Currency and Worlds

A few years ago, virtual worlds such as Linden Labs' Second Life garnered a lot of media attention and attracted many new users chasing the next big thing. Meanwhile, the creation, sale and use of virtual goods and currency grew strong within the once niche market of massive multiplayer online (MMO) gaming.

Now, virtual goods and currencies reach beyond the MMO gaming world and have significant impact on the business models and development of social games, social networks, and community sites. With various estimates claiming that the virtual goods market will grow from $1 billion in 2009 to $1.6 billion in 2010, we thought it useful to conduct a study of how companies playing within the virtual space protect and leverage their brands. Our findings thus far have been interesting and shed a lot of light on where the industry is going.

The study is ongoing, but to whet your appetite before we publish our report, we include the chart above. This chart shows the number of trademarks filed per year between 2005 and 2009 that expressly cover virtual goods, virtual currency (or virtual money), and virtual worlds.

Here are some of our early conclusions from the study:

1. Those with trademarks covering core virtual brand aspects (i.e. the signs, icons or symbols that consumers know you for) show higher than average ARPU.

2. In markets such as the US, where consumers tend to be more willing to pay for virtual goods, trademark protection appears to make a more significant impact than some other markets where consumers may not be willing to pay as much.

3. With many new entrants and more venture financing entering the social media and virtual goods markets, competition for "share of voice" and consumer attention will only get tougher.  Companies with a trademark strategy that incorporates certain "best practices" that we identify in the study are best positioned to distinguish from their competition and profit from their brands in the future. 

Please contact us for more details and information regarding the Inside Trademarks™ Virtual Goods Report.