Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government1 Trade Mark Search Workshop by Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government 19 November 2004

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government2 Today’s search workshop Today, we aim to show you: How we set the criteria for making searches for earlier marks with similarities How to use our online search services

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government3 Preliminary search service Form T1: Search of records ($200) Preliminary advice on registrability ($200) Turnaround time for e-filed T1: 1 week

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government4 Search and comparison of marks Search for earlier marks with similarities is a preliminary step to comparing the marks and assessing whether they are confusingly similar Similarity is assessed on first impressions of look, sound and idea

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government5 Word elements - Device elements We search for : similarities in words, Chinese characters, letters and numerals (word search) similarities in device elements (device search)

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government6 Online trademark search Our online search at offers you two search interfaces: Simple search Advanced search

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government7 Simple search interface

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government8 Simple search - word elements (1) Simple search offers a number of search options: ‘Contain word’ : finds marks with the identical ‘word(s)’ e.g. search for ‘Apple’ finds ‘Apple’,‘blue apple’ ‘Contain word starting with’: finds marks starting with the ‘word(s)’ e.g. search for ‘Apple’ finds ‘Apple’,‘blue apple’, ‘applera’

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government9 Simple search -word elements (2) ‘Contain word ending with’: finds marks ending with the ‘word(s)’ e.g. search for ‘Apple’ finds ‘apple’, ‘blue apple’, ‘pineapple’ ‘Part word’: finds marks containing the ‘word(s)’ e.g. search for ‘apple’ finds ‘apple’, ‘blue apple’, ‘applera’, ‘pineapple’, “PineappleRepublic” Click “Help” for more examples.

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government10 Advanced search interface

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government11 Advanced search vs Simple search Comparing wildcard “%” with simple search Advanced search - wildcardSimple search apple =Contain word apple% =Contain word starting with %apple =Contain word ending with %apple% = Part word

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government12 Advanced search - word elements (1) Advanced search offers wildcard and letter mark methods, to extend your search: Wildcard ‘%’ : substitutes one or more or nil characters e.g. Ci%er finds Ice Grape Cider, Citysuper, Cine-R, Me CIGARETTES Me Lavender, cier Wildcard ‘_’ : substitutes a single character e.g. Ci_er finds Ice Grape Cider, Cine-R

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government13 Advanced search - word elements (2) Selecting ‘Letter Mark’ confines your search to marks comprising the identical letters e.g. Letter Mark search for ‘abc’ finds marks ABC, abc, abc and device Alternatively, ‘Letter Mark’ search for ‘a_c’ extends your search and finds ABC, abc, adc, amc, arc and device Click “Help” for more examples.

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government14 Search system behaviour Supports Roman letters and numerals: A-Z, a-z, 0-9 Supports traditional and simplified Chinese characters Punctuation does not affect search (e.g. iou = i.o.u.)

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government15 Searching Chinese characters - Indistinctive terms Example: ‘ 金發器械公司 ’ Suggested search criterion: “% 金 % AND % 發 %” There is no need to search ‘ 器械公司 ’ as it is an indistinctive term.

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government16 Search for composite words Example : ‘Briefcase 花園 ’ ‘Briefcase’ and ‘ 花園 ’ are searched as composite words Suggested search criteria: %briefcase% % 花園 %

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government17 Word search - phonetically similar marks Example: ‘PELICAN’ ‘PELIKAN’ Class: 16

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government18 Using the advanced search interface - select search option ‘Wild card’ and enter ‘PELI%AN’

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government19 Select the goods and services class number from the Classification List - and click ‘Add Selected Class(es)’

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government20 If you select a class - the system automatically cross-searches related class(es)

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government21 Results of your search ‘PELI%AN’ - finds marks ‘PELICAN’ and ‘PELIKAN’ in Class 16 and cross searched classes

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government22 Device search Vienna Agreement Vienna Classification Principles of coding device marks Search online

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government23 Vienna Agreement The Vienna Agreement establishes an international system for classifying ‘figurative’ elements The Agreement concluded in 1973 and entered into force in 1985 The Agreement is administered by WIPO

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government24 Vienna Agreement 19 countries are parties to the Agreement: Austria, France, Netherlands, etc Used in more than 30 countries e.g. China, UK Canada and the USA

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government25 Vienna Classification Available in English and French (IPD makes it available in Chinese through online search) A Committee of Experts amends and adds to the Classification from time to time An updated version is published approximately every 5 years (latest version: 2003)

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government26 Vienna Classification ‘Figurative elements’ include devices, three-dimensional marks and ‘stylised’ words and letters The classification is a hierarchical system, arranging figurative elements into 29 categories, 144 divisions and 1,887 sections

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government27 Coding system 3 -level coding system Examples: Code Men (man) drinking or eating Code Men (man) smoking Code One star Code Three stars Code More than three stars

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government28 Coding - two alternative approaches Coding all elements: the approach taken by WIPO: for example Nelson Mandela’s portrait (Article 6ter) In addition to the head and bust, the circle, and letters are coded Coding only significant/distinctive parts for example, UK approach

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government29 Hong Kong’s approach to coding Hong Kong codes significant elements Simple borders and underlining such as circle, words in plain form are not coded

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government30 Hong Kong’s approach to coding The same coding principles apply to 2D/3D marks We do not code: presentation of words, letters and numerals in standard type-face or non-stylised lettering borders of simple circles, ovals, squares or rectangles non-stylized punctuation marks e.g full stop, comma marks in colour unless a colour or colours claimed as the trade mark or as an element or elements of the trade mark

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government31 Hong Kong’s approach to coding Example: The ampersand is a significant stylized feature of the mark and we set the following device codes: (punctuation mark) (Other signs, notations or symbols )

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government32 Hong Kong’s approach to coding Example: ‘Jack & Jill’ The ampersand ‘&’ in this example is not a significant stylized feature and is not coded

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government33 Using device codes directly

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government34 Using device description to get the appropriate device code(s)

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government35 Device codes for each mark - Click the thumbnail of the mark to display the device codes

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government36 Using device codes to search non-Roman letters or non-Chinese characters Device code: Inscriptions in stylized (stylised) Chinese, Korean or Japanese characters

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government37 Reference Information about search can also be found at to_note_on_search_v1.pdf Click ‘Help’ on our online search system for more information on setting search criteria

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government38 Reference Work Manual Chapters on –Search –Scope of Searches - relative grounds for refusal

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government39 Thank you

Intellectual Property Department, Hong Kong SAR Government40 Q & A