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The Japan Patent Office (JPO) assigns an identification number (ID No.) to each applicant so as to facilitate the JPO’s administration of all of that party’s applications of any type — trademark, patent, or other — while an application is pending.
However, after an applied-for trademark, for example, is granted registration, the ID No. assigned to the applicant is not connected with the registered trademark.
The JPO’s records include the following three items in relation to an applicant’s ID No.:
- the applicant’s name;
- the applicant’s address; and
- an impression of the applicant’s seal, or, in the case of a foreign applicant, the applicant’s signature.
If an applicant that already has been assigned an ID No., each new application by that applicant must include the above-specified three items exactly as previously submitted to, and recorded by, the JPO. If even one letter, character, or number differs from that which the JPO has recorded for that identification number, the JPO will deem that the applicant of the new application is different that the applicant to whom that identification number had been assigned, and the JPO will assign a new, different identification number to the applicant of the new application, even though the applicant of the two (or more) applications actually are one and the same party. |
