Newsletter
FAMILY NAME REGISTRABLE AS TRADEMARK
The Trademark Act does not explicitly stipulate whether a family name may be registered as a trademark. In a judgment in 2009, the Supreme Administrative Court held that as consumers usually will not use a family name to distinguish the suppliers of the goods or services, a family name may not be distinctive enough to identify the goods or services and distinguish them from those offered by others. Nevertheless, a family name may be registered as a trademark if it has become distinctive enough through extensive use, such as the Japanese family name "TOYOTA", which is famous in the field of cars, and the English name "McDonald", which is famous in the field of fast foods.