TM5 Holds Its 10th Annual Meeting

November 9, 2021

From November 3rd to 5th 2021, the CNIPA hosted the 10th Annual Meeting of the Five Trademark Offices (TM5) online. The TM5 offices are the offices responsible for trademarks in Japan, the United States, Europe, China, and Korea. The JPO’s Mr. Kawakami, Director-General of the Trademark and Customer Relations Department of the Japan Patent Office (JPO), attended the meeting.

In response to the changing needs of trademark owners, the TM5 offices during the meeting confirmed the importance of strengthening cooperation, particularly in regard to trademarks in digital and new, emerging technologies.

Also, the TM5 offices discussed the state of progress of 16 cooperative projects, which includes the Bad-Faith Trademark Filings Project (1), Image Search Project (2), and User Association Involvement Project (3) that are being led by the JPO. They also adopted proposals about launching two new projects. Furthermore, they discussed how all of these projects should proceed going forward.

Industry groups and attorney organizations from the TM5 countries/regions participated in the TM5 User Session. During the session, each of the offices talked about their latest initiatives and held active discussions with the participants.

The JPO continues to take strides in improving the landscape for intellectual properties by promoting international cooperation with the TM5 and other offices.

• (1) The objective of this project is for the offices to exchange information on bad-faith trademark filings in their respective offices. Bad-faith trademark filings refer to filings and registrations by third-parties who have neither vested interests in nor valid rights to the trademarks. The offices exchange information on their operating procedures for responding to these bad-faith trademark filings and provide that information to users. In this meeting, the JPO reported that it published a “Manga Booklet” featuring measures to combat against bad-faith trademark filings. At this meeting, the TM5 offices reached a consensus that they will proceed with creating a Digest of Case Examples of Bad-Faith Trademark Filings.
• (2) The initial aim of this project was to exchange information to develop an image search system that can be used to examine figure trademarks at each TM5 office. Afterward, the scope of this project was expanded to include all IT systems that can improve examination efficiency. In this meeting, the TM5 agreed to changing the name of this project to the “IT Support for Trademark Examination Project” and also continuing to exchange useful information.
• (3) This project is a collaborative effort between the JPO and the EUIPO. The JPO is the lead office to hold a joint workshop with The International Trademark Association (INTA), a user group based in the United States. The workshop serves as a means for providing information to general users in charge. In this meeting, the TM5 offices reached a consensus on holding a meeting on this project in April 2022.

 

Director-General Kawakami and Director Takano

Mr. Bai, Dr. Shen and Mr. Cui (CNIPA)

[Last updated 9 November 2021]