A trademark represents a unique sign, expression or design which serves for the identification of the services or products of a certain source from those of others. Trademark registration in Japan is useful for those company owners who are just starting a business and wish to protect the identity of their company as well as for international businesses that enter the Japanese market.
Our company formation consultants in Japan can assist you with the entire procedure of registering a trademark in this country, as well as setting up a company in Japan.
The legal framework for trademarks in Japan is set by the Trademark Act of 1959. This country has adopted a first-to-file basis for the trademark protection. The scope of the act is to protect a chosen trademark, maintain business confidence and thus to ensure the proper development of the industry, at the same time protecting the interests of consumers.
Some of the main requirements for trademark registration in Japan, as defined in the first two chapters of the Act, are the following:
Trademarks cannot be registered when they are likely to cause confusion regarding the goods or services they represent not when they are likely to mislead the customers in regards to the quality of the goods or services. Likewise, the mark cannot indicate a place of origin of Japanese wines or spirits that have been designated by the Commissioner of the Patent Office, not a place of origin for wines or spirits of a member of the World Trade Organization.
A trademark registration in Japan is valid for 10 years from the date it was registered and may be renewed for another 10 years prior to the date of expiration. Our team can assist interested individuals both with the initial registration and with the renewal.
Trademark rights are effective throughout Japan and the owner has exclusive usage rights. The general procedure for obtaining the registration is described below by our Japan company formation agents:
Those who are interested in trademark registration in Japan should know that any individual can file an opposition to the decision to register a trademark. This is done with the Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office.
Having specialized assistance while submitting the request for a trademark registration (or even for an appeal or a trial for cancellation) is important. Our team can help with the following:
• Our company registration advisors in Japan acknowledge the data received from you, such as the specimen of the mark, its services or goods and the registration details and others. We also offer the most recent quotation and we classify the services or goods;
• The client has to complete a trademark search or a registration order form and send it back to us;
• After we receive the payment receipt for the pre-filling search, we will effectuate, if requested, a pre-filling search. The official search report is sent to you in maximum 15 working days;
• In case the search results show that the application is to be expected for being accepted and you decide to go further, we will need a photocopy of an identity document, like a passport or a business registration license. Also, you will have to pay for filling the application;
• We file the application for the trademark to the Japan Patent Office (JPO) after we receive your payment and instruction;
• We inform you when the JPO publishes the content of the filing in the Official Gazette and it verifies if it meets the substantive and formal conditions. In case these are not respected, the Examiner objects to the mark;
• If the trademark was approved for registration, the certificate of the registration is issued by the JPO;
• Our Japan company formation specialists review and send you the certificate.
The accelerated examination for trademarks in Japan is possible only in a number of cases and the following two requirements are important:
Currently, the Japan Patent Office does not allow the option to submit an accelerated procedure for non-traditional trademarks. Included here are motion or hologram trademarks, color trademarks (those that are made up solely of colors), sound or position trademarks. This is the case due to the fact that these types of marks are subject to a higher level of examination in order to ensure quality and compliance. If you wish to know more, our team can help you.
The number of applications that are submitted under the accelerated procedure is growing in Japan. The statistics repotted by the Office highlight the fact that the total number of such submissions was 8,110 in 2019, compared to 1,587 in 2013. The industries for which the accelerated procedure was requested most often include industrial services (with 1,659 applications in 2019) and the general services (with 1.652 applications in 2019).
Another option that may be suitable for many of those who apply for trademark registration in Japan is the fast-track examination. Under this process, the examination phase takes place within approximately 6 months, compared to the average 12 months required for regular applications.
In all cases, the applicant who files for trademark registration in Japan under the fast-track procedure should keep in mind that the actual time needed for the Office to issue a decision on the registration can very from one case to another. In certain cases, applications submitted on or after February 1, 2020 are subject to the fast-track examination, however, for certain categories of goods or classes of services, this type of application is ineligible.
Some of the most important differences between the fast-track and the accelerated process are the following:
Entrepreneurs who wish to submit an application for trademark registration in Japan are not informed by the Office whether or not their application is eligible for the fast-track examination (according to the category of goods or services for which the application is made). Applicants are expected to check individually if they meet the conditions for the process. If you are interested, our team can give you more details about the applications that meet the requirements for the fast-track examination.
The Japan Patent Office imposes a set of fees for each type of application, be it for trademarks, patents, designs or utility models. The fees that were in place starting with 2021 and at the time this article was written were the following for trademarks:
The fees for the initial application, the renewal and the opposition/appeal/trial of patents or designs are different. Investors who wish to make more than one application with the Patent Office (for example, one for a trademark as well as one for a design – as may be needed in their specific industry) should take these costs into consideration when calculating the initial business budget.
Please feel free to reach out to our experts who specialize in both company formation and trademark registration in Japan. Complete assistance is provided to all our clients who are interested in registration, whether they are local or foreign ones.
According to the Japan Patent Office, the preliminary data released for 2020 (as of the end of September) indicates that there have been:
If you need to know more about the trademark registration in Japan, we invite you to get in touch with our company registration representatives in Japan.