JPO Held First TM5 Seminar on Bad-faith Trademark Filings

The Japan Patent Office (JPO) held the First TM5 Seminar on Bad-faith Trademark Filings in Tokyo on October 22, 2013. The Seminar was a part of the activities of the Continuation/Expansion of Bad Faith Project, which the JPO has been actively advancing as the lead office under the cooperative framework of the TM5, which includes the intellectual property (IP) offices of Japan, the U.S., Europe, China, and Korea.

In recent years, some third parties have filed trademark applications in bad faith by taking advantage of the fact that some trademarks of other persons remain “unregistered,” and then taking it upon themselves to register such trademarks as their own. The objective of this Seminar was to provide an opportunity for working level staff members from each of the TM5 Offices to exchange opinions on the current status of their respective systems and operational practices designed to deal with these so-called “bad faith trademark filings.” In addition, at the Seminar, the JPO gave an update on the latest efforts being conducted to respond to the problems of bad faith trademark filings in each country.

Fortunately, the Seminar was a huge success, with a large number of users attending, including companies, patent attorneys, and lawyers. Also, the JPO received many favorable comments from the attendees, who indicated that the Seminar was very useful and beneficial because they were able to hear discussions on the latest measures being developed in the TM5 countries to combat bad faith trademark filings.

In order to continue to deal with these issues that have become major concerns of users both in and outside Japan, the JPO will continue to lead this Project under the framework of the TM5, so as to exchange information on systems and operational practices of the TM5 offices as well as to provide a variety of useful information to users.

To view the materials distributed at the Seminar, please refer to the following:

Presentation

[Last updated 4 July 2014]

International Cooperation Division

Policy Planning and Coordination Department

Japan Patent Office

E-mail:PA0800@jpo.go.jp

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