New Page, Speed Up Trademark Examination Process in Japan, Has Been Added to Our Website

It takes about ONE YEAR to know the outcome of a trademark application.

It takes about A YEAR AND A HALF to complete trademark registration process.

These days, it seems that a quicker action is urged anytime and anywhere in the world. There are not many things that you have to wait for one year, or even one year and a half. For those who are not accustomed to trademark registration procedures, it often is a surprise to know how long the process takes.

Japan Patent Office, "4. Trademark, Chapter 1 domestic and foreign application and registration status and current status of examination and trial." Patent Administration Yearly Report, Year 2019, 2019, pp. 29-30.

Remarks: The numbers of designations of Japan through International Registration are not included in the total numbers of trademark applications and average number of international classes per trademark application.

The above chart shows:

• the numbers of trademark applications (locally filed trademark applications only) in BLUE bar graph,
• the average numbers of months from filing an application to receiving FA (first action from an examiner) in RED line graph, and
• the average numbers of international classes per trademark application (locally filed trademark applications only) in ORANGE line graph

 The average FA timing has kept increasing rapidly since 2015.

According to the Japan Patent Office website, one of the causes of the delay are presumed to be an increase in the number of trademark applications.

Based on the above chart, an increase in the number of international classes designated in an application could also be said as a possible cause of the delay. 

The number of requests for the Accelerated Examination was only 3,441 in 2017 according to the Japan Patent Office.

We were not able to find out the numbers of trademark applications, which were subject to the Fast Track Examination. The Fast Track Examination is a new system, which has been introduced in Japan in 2018. Most of the users of the Fast Track Examination would be Japanese individuals and entities. 

Please check out whether your application meets the requirements of these expedite examination processes. If you can arrange your application to fit all the requirements, it will enjoy the ride of a bullet train.

For details of expedite trademark examination system in Japan, please READ THIS:

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