TM5 – a new framework by key players in trademarks
The TM5 is a conglomerating of the world’s top five trademark offices 1) China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) 2) Europe’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) 3) the Japan Patent Office (JPO) 4) South Korea’s Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) 5) the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). These offices reportedly account for 70 percent of all trademark and design applications worldwide. The TM5 grew out of the Trademark Trilateral, a cooperative framework of the JPO, OHIM and the USPTO that was formed in 2001. After expansions in 2011 and 2012 to include KIPO and SAIC, respectively, the group has had gradually evolved into its present form. The tmfive.org website contains the history and objectives of...