Aug 08, 2012
A major revision of the Trademark Act, worked out by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) with the aim of accommodating the rise of new emerging enterprises by strengthening the trademark examination mechanism and bringing Taiwan in line with international trademark norms, was implemented on July 1. Under the revised act, any kind of logo that is able to evoke a specific brand image in the minds of consumers, including an image, a hologram, a specific scent or tactile sensation, can now be registered as a trademark.
TIPO Director General Mei-hua Wang noted that the revised Trademark Act, which was formulated in reference to the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks (STLT), expanded the definition of a trademark to be “any kind of mark with a distinctive character,” including motion marks, hologram marks, and other new categories of distinctive qualities. The United States, the European Union, Singapore and other regions that have already adopted this new definition have made these new characteristics and traits available for trademark purposes.
TIPO pointed out that a combination of images and sounds, including a cell phone’s startup screen or a film’s opening credits, has unique qualities and can be registered as a trademark on condition that it can be used to distinguish products or services as coming from a specific provider. An applicant may even apply for joint registration of sounds and images; in other words, an entire film can now be registered as a business trademark.
TIPO also stressed that scents and tactile sensations must comply with the conditions of distinctiveness and non-functionality, otherwise the selection will not be eligible for trademark registration. In regards to scented trademarks, for instance, the fundamental scent of a product, such as the noticeable smell of leather, or functional aromas that are already in common usage, such as the scent added to bleach to mask its acrid odor, cannot trigger an individual product association nor do they carry any distinctive qualities – hence they cannot be registered as trademarks.
Those applying for non-traditional trademarks such as images, holograms, scents, and tactile sensations must, in general, provide information on the actual use of the proposed trademark, the length of its usage, the sales volume and market share of the relevant product, advertising and promotional activities, as well as proof that consumers see the trademark which is being applied for as a distinctive logo of the provider. This will help TIPO determine the distinctive quality of the proposed trademark. For more information on non-traditional trademark registration, please visit the TIPO website (http://www.tipo.gov.tw) and click on “Examination Guidelines for Non-traditional Trademarks.”