For the most part, where a business should protect its trademarks aligns with where the business uses or is likely to use those trademarks.  However, it can be helpful to benchmark a foreign filing strategy with what other businesses are doing, so here it the top ten list of countries where U.S. businesses file for trademark protection.

1. China
2. Canada
3. Mexico
4. Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market
5. Brazil
6. Australia
7. Japan
8. Republic of Korea
9. India
10. Argentina

(Based upon WIPO data for 2014).  Whenever you see a list of what others are doing, you need to do a reality check for your own particular circumstances.  Mom had a point when she asked: “If everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you jump too?”

Here is the whole list