Amidst economic activities that are becoming more globalized, and with global competition becoming even fiercer, the strategic use of trademark rights by companies has been steadily growing in importance and becoming an effective means for them to establish and protect their highly valuable, internationally recognized brands. Under this situation, the Japan Patent Office (JPO), under the framework of the TM5, has been working on a variety of cooperative initiatives with IP offices in other countries and regions. (The TM5 offices account for 50% of all trademark applications being filed worldwide.) These initiatives include providing a sufficient framework that not only enables companies to acquire stable trademark rights quickly worldwide but also enables them to appropriately protect their trademark rights as well. In particular, this year, the theme of the Meeting that the TM5 has adopted is “Enhance the International Cooperation towards the User Friendly Trademark Systems.”
In April 2014, the Japanese Diet approved a bill to revise the Trademark Act, adding protection for five non-traditional trademarks, namely, “sound marks,” “motion marks,” “hologram marks,” “color per se marks,” and “position marks”.
Also, outside Japan, a growing trend exists to protect non-traditional trademarks. For example, Europe and the U.S. have legal systems in which applicants are able to register a wide variety of marks that have distinctive or differentiating characteristics as trademarks. So, these non-traditional trademarks are already being protected as trademark rights. However, in Europe, as the result of a landmark court decision in the Sieckmann case in 2002, scents are still not able to be registered as trademarks. In the decision, the court determined that the ways in which the applicant represented the scent mark were not able to be clearly identified. Also, in Korea, since 2012, non-traditional trademarks, namely, sounds, scents, and positions, have been given protection legally. And in China, the Trademark Law was revised, and the protection of “sound marks” just started May 1, 2014.
Based on these circumstances, at the user session on trademarks to be held during the TM5 Annual Meeting in December, TM5 members will make presentations on past year's development in the field of trademarks at their respective offices and hold a panel discussion on the “Non-Traditional Trademarks.”
The JPO believes that it will be very meaningful for the TM5 offices and users to exchange information and opinions on non-traditional trademarks, in order to enable applicants to acquire trademark rights and protection earlier worldwide.
The Meeting will be a valuable opportunity for the heads and the staff members from the TM5 offices to get together. This will also offer a unique opportunity for the participants to deepen their understanding and knowledge about the current state of each TM5 office. The JPO sincerely looks forward to having as many participants as possible attend the Meeting so as to make it a huge success.
