The Partial Revision of the Examination Guidelines for Trademarks (10th Revision) concerning the Expansion of the Scope of Eligible Entities to Register the Regional Collective Trademarks accompanied by the Partial Revision of Trademark Act in 2014

August 2014

Trademark Examination Standards Office

Japan Patent Office

In the second and third meeting of the Working Group on Trademark Examination Standards, Trademark System Subcommittee of Intellectual Property Policy Committee under the Industrial Structure Council (held on May 21 and June3, 2014), it was discussed on the expansion of the scope of eligible entities to register regional collective trademarks accompanied by the partial revision of the Trademark Act in 2014. As the result, a draft revision of the Examination Guidelines for Trademarks was made, and public comments on it were invited from June 18, 2014 to July 17, 2014.

Afterwards, it was further discussed based on the comments made by the public, which has resulted in the partial revision of the Examination Guidelines for Trademarks concerning “the expansion of the scope of eligible entities to register regional collective trademarks accompanied by the partial revision of the Trademark Act in 2014.”

Partially revised Examination Guidelines for Trademarks (10th revision; partially revised) has been, in principle, applied to the examinations of the applications filed after August 1, 2014)

• The Examination Guidelines for Trademarks concerning Article 7-2 of the Trademark Act after the partial revision (PDF:57KB)

(For reference) The Examination Guidelines for Trademarks before the Partial Revision

• The Examination Guidelines for Trademarks concerning Article 7-2 of the Trademark Act before the partial revision (PDF:32KB)

Major Points of the Partial Revision

A phrase of “the society of commerce and industry, the chamber of commerce and industry, and a specified non-profit corporation” is added as new entities that can register regional collective trademarks,” and the entities are described as three groups of “association,” “the society, the chamber of commerce and a specified non-profit corporation,” and “a foreign juridical person equivalent thereto.”

Furthermore, while the conventional Examination Guidelines for Trademarks only describes the qualifications of an applicant, the new guidelines specifically describe how to judge whether an applicant qualifies as an “Association, etc.” on the basis of which documents.

The followings are the details.

(1) For a national juridical person (the society of commerce and industry, the chamber of commerce and industry, and a specified non-profit corporation)

The new guidelines clearly describe that it is confirmed whether the association has a juridical person by means of a certificate of registered matter or other officially issued document (hereinafter referred to as a “Certificate of Registered Matter, etc.”).

Furthermore, it is usually confirmed by means of a copy of the governing law for incorporation of an Association, etc. whether any person who is eligible can be a member of the Association, etc. However, for the society of commerce and industry, the chamber of commerce and industry, and a specified non-profit corporation, if they can prove themselves to be an Association, etc. by means of a Certificate of Registered Matter, etc., it is obvious that the governing law for incorporation has a provision ensuring that any person who is eligible can be a member. Therefore, the new guidelines state that in such a case, it is not necessary to be confirmed by means of the governing law for incorporation.

(2) For a foreign juridical person

Considering the differences in the legal system with Japan, the new guidelines describe that a foreign juridical person can submit documents equivalent to those which a national juridical person are required to submit, allowing a flexible handling.

Furthermore, the new guidelines describe that after judging which group (association, the society of commerce and industry, the chamber of commerce and industry, and a specified non-profit corporation) it shall fall into, it is confirmed whether it has juridical personality and its governing law for incorporation of an Association, etc. has a provision ensuring that any person who is eligible can be a member.

[Last updated 30 January 2014]

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