JPO Participated in Five Trademark Offices (TM5) Mid-Term Meeting and 144th International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting

May 16, 2022

Mr. Kawakami, Director-General of the JPO Trademark and Customer Relations Department, together with other JPO staff, attended the Five Trademark Offices (TM5) Mid-Term Meeting between Japan, the U.S., Europe, China, and Korea that was held in Washington, D.C. (USA) on April 28 and 29 (with CNIPA joining online). They also participated in the 144th International Trademark Association (INTA)*1 Annual Meeting that was held in D.C from April 30 to May 4.

At the TM5 Mid-term Meeting, responsible offices reported on the progress of 16 cooperative projects that are presently underway. They also discussed how these projects should be undertaken, as well as their objectives looking forward.

The JPO proposed conducting an educational seminar in ASEAN countries to share the results of TM5 initiatives with other IP Offices regarding the "Bad Faith Project*2" that the JPO is overseeing. In addition, the proposal to hold an expert meeting in June 2022 on the "IT support for Trade Mark Examination Project*3" was endorsed by all offices.

The TM5 User Session was held during the INTA Annual Meeting, on May 1. The latest JPO initiatives were promoted during the session, which targeted user representatives from industry associations and representative organizations. EUIPO, the 2022 TM5 meeting host, also presented its plans for further cooperation with users on the occasion of TM5's 10th anniversary this year, including the appropriate provision of information.

As part of the "User Association Involvement Project,*4 ", the JPO co-hosted "TM5 Joint Workshop" with INTA twice on May 2 during the INTA Annual Meeting (once online and once face-to-face). At the workshops, the representatives from the TM5 Offices delivered a presentation on recent revisions to the trademark law and trademark examination guidelines at their offices.

The next TM5 Annual Meeting will be held in Brussels, Belgium, from October 24- 26, 2022.

• *1: The International Trademark Association (INTA) consists of more than 6,500 members from government bodies, educational institutions, companies, etc. in 185 countries.
• *2: The TM5 Offices aim to exchange information on their respective laws, regulations and operational practices with regard to the bad faith trademark filings, as well as to provide users with information in this regard.

  TM5 Website "Bad Faith Project" (External Link)

• *3: The initial objective of the project was to exchange information to promote the development of image searches that can be used for figurative trademark examination by each office on their own. Later, in light of developments in IT technology, the scope of the project was expanded to include all IT systems that would contribute to more efficient examinations.

  TM5 Website "IT support for Trade Mark Examination Project" (External Link)

• *4: Project led jointly together with EUIPO. The JPO leads TM5 joint workshops in cooperation with the INTA, an American user group, to disseminate information to general users.

  TM5 Website "User Association Involvement Project" (External Link)

Mr. Kawakami, Director-General of the Trademark and Customer Relations Department of the JPO (far right),
together with participants from member offices, and a WIPO representative

Participants from TM5 Offices

[Last updated 16 May 2022]