"Economic Development in South America, 1870s-1914s: Does the Lens of Trademark Registrations Provide any New Insights?"

It is well established that South America has fallen behind in terms of economic development since the late nineteenth century, but why and when exactly this occurred is still an ongoing debate. There are several competing views explaining the level of economic development of the region, drawing on a wide variety of indicators. However, the use of intellectual property rights data relying on trademark registrations has been absent from such debates. This study analyses and compares the evolution of intellectual property regimes in South America during the first global economy, from the 1870s to 1914, and assesses the branding and trademark protection strategies of local companies and multinational enterprises operating in the region. This is a period when several South American countries developed for the first-time new industries in consumer goods, which became key for the countries’ economies. This study focuses on the cases of Colombia, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and draws on a variety of primary and secondary sources. An original database with all the trademark registrations for each of these countries was collected for the first time. Corporate archives when available, as well as import and export statistics, and foreign direct investment data were also used. The study addresses the following questions: Is it possible to identify patterns in terms of trademark registrations indicative of spillovers and learning by local entrepreneurs and businesses, resulting from different modes of entry into those markets by multinational enterprises? How significant are entrepreneurial diasporas in explaining the creation of industries, and the long-term competitiveness of those industries in global branded consumer goods industries? What new insights does the lens of trademark registrations provide on explanations of economic development in South America during the first globalization wave?