JPO hold the Five Trademark Offices (TM5) Mid-Term Meeting

May 8, 2024

The Japan Patent Office (JPO) held Five Trademark Offices (TM5) Mid-Term Meeting on April 23 at the JPO Office Building, as the host office for this year's meetings of the TM5, which includes Japan, the United States, Europe, China, and Korea.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. YAMASHITA, Director-General of the JPO Trademark and Customer Relations Department. The participants discussed future goals, and the way forward regarding the 15 cooperative projects that TM5 is promoting to harmonize trademark practices and procedures, as well as to improve trademark services. A new project proposal was also discussed.

Regarding the "Bad Faith Trademark Project^*1", which is one of the three projects led by the JPO, we reported on the results of the awareness-raising workshop (link) for the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IP Viet Nam) held in January this year, and also discussed the next workshop. Regarding the "IT Support for Trademark Examination Project^*2", we confirmed that we will hold an expert meeting again this year, and that we will cooperate for the "User Involvement Project^*3" in preparation for the TM5/INTA Joint Workshop to be held in May this year alongside the International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting.

The 13th TM5 Annual Meeting, where TM5 will review this year's activities, is scheduled for December 9-11, 2024, in Hakone, Japan.

The JPO will continue to make contributions toward the promotion of appropriate protection and utilization of trademark rights through the efforts of TM5.

^*1 The Bad Faith Trademark Project aims to exchange information on the systems and operations of each office with regard to bad faith trademark filings, and to provide users with this information.
TM5 website page

^*2 The IT Support for Trademark Examination Project aims to exchange information on IT tools/systems for optimizing trademark examinations.
TM5 website page

^*3 The JPO leads TM5 joint workshops in cooperation with the International Trademark Association (INTA) to disseminate information to users.
TM5 website page

Mr. YAMASHITA, Director-General,
Trademark and Customer Relations Department JPO(center), together with
representatives from the other TM5 Offices

Participants from all TM5 offices

[Last updated 8 May 2024]