IPO drafted the patent examination standard on trademark disputes.

Recently, the trademark disputes are increasingly frequent; such circumstance that the administrative court and the IPO of Ministry of Economic Affairs render different examination decisions frequently arises. On February 25, 2004 the IPO indicated that the existent laws simply focus on the comparison of two trademark patterns and ignore the psychological factor that the consumers could be confused. For this reason, the IPO adds the examination standard concerning “confusion about a trademark” and will announce the standard after inviting the relevant trademark owners to discuss the said issue in the recent days.

 

The existent article in conflict with the above matter is Article 23 (13) of the Trademark Law, which provides that “the trademark identical with or similar to the logo registered by others on the identical or similar products and service, or the trademark registered earlier, both of which may cause confusion to the consumers, are disallowed to be registered”. In this article, only the pattern or the wording of a trademark or the similarity of the product are taken into account, which does not fit in with the actual situation.

 

With regard to the examination of trademark disputes, the seven standards drafted by the IPO are “distinctiveness of a trademark”, “similarity of a trademark”, “similarity of goods or service”, “diversified business operation of former right holders”, “whether the competitive trademark applicants are malevolent”, “ the actual situation that the similar trademarks cause confusion”, “relevant consumers’ familiarity with different trademarks” and also other factors causing confusion such as the manner how a product is marketed or how the service is provided. (2004.02)

CYJ/WYL