なぜ商標権を取得しておくべきか

ある企業の製品について、それまで売り上げが好調だった商品が突然一通の警告書により、今までの商標で販売できなくなることを想像したことがあるでしょうか？
商標は、予め特許庁に備える商標原簿に登録しておくことにより、独占的に使用することができることになります。そして、商標権を取得しておけば、上記のような状態は未然に防ぐことが可能となります。このためにも、事業主の皆様には予め商標権を取得しておくことを強くお勧めします。



権利取得について

日本国内における権利取得
出願，中間処理，審判，審決取消訴訟　出願前調査
外国における権利取得
外国出願　マドリッド協定議定書に基づく国際登録

鑑定について
・登録要件の判断
・意匠・商標の類否判断

交渉について
ライセンス交渉　権利譲渡交渉

警告について
侵害警告を受けたときの対処　侵害者に対する警告

When you receive a notification of provisional refusal from the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), please carefully consider the following:

TERM TO RESPOND:
A response to the provisional refusal must be filed within three months from the dispatched date of the refusal from WIPO.

EXTENSION OF TERM:
Normally, a resident abroad is allowed to obtain a one month extension for responding to the provisional refusal. For the case, the extension procedure must be made through your Japanese associate by filing a power of attorney executed by the representative of the owner of the international registration.

COST FOR EXTENSION:
The cost for filing extension for responding to the provisional refusal is JPY2,100 official fee. Often Japanese attorney firms charge a service fee from JPY5,000 to JPY10,000 for preparing and filing the extension. However, FUNAMOTO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE will not charge the service fee for filing the request for extension, if you authorize us for responding to the provisional refusal in Japan.

REASONS OF PROVISIONAL REFUSAL:
Generally, reasons of provisional refusal can be categorized as follows:

1. The specification of Goods/Services in one class if too broad, namely it covers more than eight sub-categories in one class (applied against Section 3, principal of Sub-Section 1 of the Japanese Trademark Law).
   
   
2. Description of Goods/Services is not sufficient, for example if unclear or too vague (applied against Section 6, Sub-Sections 1 and 2 of the Japanese Trademark Law).
   
   
3. The mark filed is similar or identical with a prior registered mark or an applied mark currently pending. It is often difficult to ascertain directly why the proposed mark is similar to the cited mark(s), since it is necessary to analyze not only similarity between the marks, but also similarity between the goods/services of the applied mark and that of the cited mark(s). However, neither the data base of JPO IPDL (Intellectual Property Digital Library) nor the provisional refusal itself give the English translation for the designated goods/services for the prior registered/applied trademark(s).

THE FIRM’S SERVICES:
Yasunobu Funamoto, having over twenty years experience in handling cases the foreign clients, provides a high quality service for foreign associates who has have received a provisional refusal from the JPO including analysis for the refusal and how to proceed for obtaining trademark rights in Japan.

COST FOR PREPARING AND FILING A RESPONSE:
FUNAMOTO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE is confident of preparing and filing amendment/argument for a provisional refusal at a very competitive rate. For example, our service fee for filing an amendment is from JPY30,000 to JPY50,000 which is very reasonable cost for foreign clients.

CONCLUSION:
If you receive a provisional refusal from JPO, please feel free to contact us, if you need any professional opinion for responding to a refusal.