Japan Chamber of Commerce And Industry Urges TIPO to Cancel Registration of Japanese Toponyms as Trademarks Such as Sanuki (讚岐) and Aomori (青森).

　Delegates from the Kagawaken Tourism Exchange Bureau from Japan visited Taiwan last year and awarded a “Sanuki Embassy” certificate to Do San Kan Roku (土三寒六), a local woo don noodle restaurant in hope for promoting Kagawaken to the Taiwanese people.  No one expected then that this certified woo don noodle restaurant was to receive a warning letter alleging trademark infringement for its use of讚岐(Sanuki) for its signboard.  This draws Japan’s attention to the registration of various Japanese place names as trademarks in Taiwan.  The Japan Chamber of Commerce And Industry formed by some 400 Japan-based companies in Taiwan thus filed a petition with the Ministry of Economic Affairs seeking cancellation of trademark registrations of Japanese toponyms including 讚岐(Sanuki), 青森(Aomori) and佐賀(Saga).

　Namchow Chemical Industrial Ltd., holder of the讚岐mark learned the experience from the noodle makers in Kagawaken to launch its Sanuki quick-freeze woo don noodle product in Taiwan and applied for registration of the Sanuki mark ten years ago.  Namchow said they are the No. 1 publicist of the Kagawa Sanuki woo don noodle because of the success of its 讚岐 woo don noodle.  Namchow put in some TWD300 million investment ten years ago to develop the facilities to produce the noodle product.

　Namchow’s registration of the Sanuki mark designated for use on woo don noodle products is preventing the woo don noodle makers from Sanuki, Japan from using the name Sanuki in Taiwan.  According to WANG Mei-Hua, Director-General of the TIPO, the registration of Namchow’s Sanuki mark is ten years old now and any cancellation action against the registration of this mark must be endorsed by sufficient evidence.  Moreover, with respect to any mark, the registration of which is over five years old, the cancellation action must be supported by evidence of malice of the mark holder in seeking the registration of the mark in issue.

　In addition to bringing the above petition to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry presented for TIPO’s reference a Japanese place names list to prevent trademark registrations of same kind.

Japanese toponyms which have been registered as trademarks in Taiwan:

Place name	Relevant business
Aomori (青森)	Agricultural products retail sale service, construction materials, underwear, night attire
Saga (佐賀)	Motorcycles, fishing equipment, restaurant, canned food, pharmaceuticals
Hakkada (博多)	Instant noodle, rubber products
Uji (宇治)	Beverage, etc.
Kumamoto (熊本)	Food, glasses
Tokyo (東京)	Garment, industrial products

(2008.03)

/EMA