IKEA is an acronym: Ingvar Kamprad, the founder; Elmtaryd, the farm he grew up on; and Agunnaryd, the nearby village in Småland, southern Sweden. According to the IKEA Museum, the trading company was registered under that name on July 28, 1943. Kamprad was seventeen, so he needed a guardian's permission, and the registration fee was a graduation present from his father.
A name built from a postal address turned out to be an excellent trademark. It means nothing in any language, so no competitor ever needs it to describe a product. But the most instructive chapter of the story is the one where IKEA, of all companies, lost its own name — in Indonesia, in 2015.
The Record
| Reg. No. | Mark | Filed / registered | Classes | Owners on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,118,706 | IKEA (with design) | Mar. 14, 1977 / May 22, 1979 | 11, 20, 21, 24, 27 | IKEA Svenska Aktiebolag → Inter-IKEA Systems B.V. |
The registration covers lighting and appliances (11), furniture (20), housewares (21), textiles (24) and floor coverings (27), and was still registered and renewed in the USPTO's records at the end of September 2026. Inter-IKEA Systems B.V., the company that holds the IKEA brand, was the current owner of 11 live U.S. registrations at that point.
How IKEA Lost Its Name in Indonesia
In December 2013, a rattan furniture maker in Surabaya, PT Ratania Khatulistiwa, filed to register IKEA in Indonesia — its own acronym, for Intan Khatulistiwa Esa Abadi. It then asked the courts to cancel the registrations Inter IKEA Systems already held there, on the ground that they hadn't been used.
- The evidence: Ratania commissioned a market survey across 140 stores in five cities, which found no IKEA products sold over the previous three years. That wasn't surprising: IKEA had no stores in Indonesia yet.
- The law: Indonesian trademark law allowed a registration to be cancelled after three consecutive years of non-use.
- The courts: The Central Jakarta Commercial Court ruled for Ratania in September 2014. Indonesia's Supreme Court upheld that result in a decision reported as made in May 2015 and published in February 2016. One of the three judges dissented.
- The fallback: Inter IKEA Systems had filed new applications in March 2012, which were registered in September 2014 — and those were not part of the cancellation.
IKEA's size didn't matter. A registration that isn't used is vulnerable, and the burden fell on the owner to show use it didn't have. (On how marks die through non-use, see trademark abandonment.)
Why a Brand-Holding Company Owns the Marks
The U.S. record shows the IKEA mark moving from IKEA Svenska Aktiebolag, the Swedish company that filed it in 1977, to Inter-IKEA Systems B.V. Large brands often put their trademarks in one entity and license them to the companies that run the stores. That keeps ownership in one place — but it also means every change has to be recorded against each registration, country by country. Keeping that inventory accurate is exactly what a trademark audit is for.
What This Record Teaches
- Registering isn't enough — use matters. In many countries a registration can be cancelled after a period of non-use (three years in the Indonesian case; in the U.S., three consecutive years of non-use creates a presumption of abandonment). If you register ahead of expansion, keep evidence of genuine use or a plan to start it.
- Refile when your plans change. IKEA's 2012 applications survived the attack on its older registrations. A fresh filing can restart the clock where you can't yet show use.
- Someone else's acronym can be your name. Ratania's IKEA stood for completely different words. Trademark rights attach to the letters, not to what they mean to you.
- An arbitrary name is strong — inside the system. "IKEA" describes nothing, which makes it easy to register. It doesn't protect you in a market where you never used it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does IKEA stand for?
Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd: the founder's initials, his family farm and the nearby village. The company was registered under the name in Sweden on July 28, 1943.
Did IKEA really lose its trademark in Indonesia?
It lost its older Indonesian registrations, which were cancelled for three years of non-use after a challenge by local furniture maker PT Ratania Khatulistiwa (Supreme Court decision reported as May 2015, published February 2016). Applications IKEA had filed in 2012 were not part of that cancellation.
When was IKEA registered in the U.S.?
IKEA Svenska Aktiebolag filed on March 14, 1977, and the mark was registered on May 22, 1979 as No. 1,118,706. It is now owned by Inter-IKEA Systems B.V.