The rising tide of unusual trademark applications

The announcement emphasised that “Even if the trademark you are using has been already applied for by another person or entity, do not give up filing an application to register that trademark in your name”.

According to the announcement, although most of those recent applications have been published, the applicants have not paid the official application fees. The number of trademark applications filed in Japan by Best License Corporation and Ikuhiro Ueda, an individual, in 2015 accounted for 10% of the total number of applications submitted.

Also, the trademarks of those applications include many trendy words that have been appearing often in various media, including newspapers, TV programmes, radio programmes, and on the internet, whereby those applications have stirred the interest of IP-related people.

The applicants who have filed the most applications, and the number of their respective applications listed on the JPO’s J-Plat-Pat database as of August 17, 2016, are as follows:

First: Best License Corporation (JPO ID No. 714011053), 7,999 applications; and

Second: Ueda (JPO ID No. 302041154), 2,663 applications.