Regarding the Geographical Indication (GI) system, which is a focus of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations between Japan and the European Union (EU), the EU side uses multiple expressions in product names, such as “Parmesan cheese”, which has become established in Japan. It was revealed through interviews with government officials on the 18th that Japan had been informed of its intention to allow the government to do so.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has approved the Patent and Registration Office’s (PRH) proposal for changes to some of its fees. The changes also apply to trademark fees: some will rise and some will fall.
Examples of new fees
Fees valid from 1 May 2017 (current fee in brackets):
商標登録出願/ trademark application
紙出願/ paper application 275 euros (250 euros)
電子出願/ online application 225 euros (215 euros)
2区分以上の区分ごとの割り増し料 class fee for each class beyond the first 100 euros (80 euros)
更新登録/ renewal of registration
紙/on paper 275 euros (300 euros)
電子/online 225 euros (275 euros)
2区分以上の区分ごとの割り増し料 class fee for each class beyond the first 100 euros (125 euros)
異議申立/ filing an opposition against a registration 275 euros (215 euros)
Please note that the online service is only available in Finnish and in Swedish.
The confectionery multinational Nestlé has lost the latest round of its long-running battle with rivals Cadbury to trademark the shape of the KitKat bar in the UK. The court of appeal ruled that the four-finger design had “no inherent distinctiveness”.
As part of the effort to improve the integrity of the trademark register, the USPTO is exploring the possibility of a streamlined version of the existing inter partes abandonment and nonuse grounds for cancellation before the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”).
A federal appeals court has rejected a lawsuit that aimed to cancel Google’s trademark by arguing that “google” is now synonymous with searching the internet.The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday it was not enough to show that people use the verb “google” generically to refer to searching the web. The lawsuit had to show that people understood “google” to mean internet search engines generally, and not just Google’s search engine.