TM5's Official Website Launched

On May 1, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) launched TM5's official website (http://tmfive.org). 

TM5 stands for "Trademark 5", a gathering of the world’s top five trademark offices. These five offices (China, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and the United States) account for a total of 70 percent of all trademark and design applications worldwide. 

The TM5 is an outgrowth of the Trademark Trilateral, a cooperative framework that JPO, OHIM, and the USPTO first undertook in 2001. After the framework was expanded in 2011 and 2012 to include KIPO and SAIC, the group evolved into what it is now. 

It promotes greater harmony within the trademark system and heightens convenience for applicants all over the world through the undertaking of ten cooperative projects. These projects include ID List, Taxonomy and TMClass, Image Search, Comparative Analysis on Examination Results, the Bad Faith project, Design Registrability/Patentablity, and so on. 

TM5 website development, along with the Comparative Analysis on Examination Results project, has been led by KIPO in coordination with its TM5 partners. This one-stop information site introduces the history and objectives of the TM5, highlights developments in the ten joint projects, and helps visitors to effortlessly search through the Trademark Act, examination guidelines, lists of official goods and services, IP statistics, etc. 

Patent attorneys and businesses seeking international applications are particularly expected to reap substantial benefits from having easier access to all trademark-related data. 

(Source: KIPO News)