The Japan Patent Office has confirmed that it is considering allowing sound and moving image marks in the next set of amendments to its trade mark law.
According to Kozo Yabe of Yuasa & Hara in Tokyo, a study committee at the Institute of Intellectual Property - an affiliate organisation of the Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Industry - is set to recommend that the law be amended to allow trade marks for sound, moving images and colour per se.
A JPO source told
Managing IP that the final report is not due until next spring, and it is not yet clear how long it will take to amend the law after that.
