We had the pleasure of meeting with Ms. Jan Liu、Ms. Yuan Yuan、Ms. Kaho Santo、Ms. Tia Lv the LexField Law Offices in China. They were kind enough to give us a presentation on recent trends and changes in trademark examination proceedings as well as how to register marks on the specially protected trademarks list in China. Of particular interest was their advice regarding avoiding and overcoming Office Actions involving rejections due to marks being misleading as to the quality of the specified goods, and also the risks involved in using such marks. We also discussed ways to anonymously file non-use cancellation actions.

Today we were visited by Ms. Ryang-eun Kim from the Yaejune International Patent and Trademark firm. We discussed several recent decisions in cases involving the evaluation of distinctiveness of trademarks and were provided helpful information about how to use the expedited examination system in Korea.

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Ms. Anca Draganescu-Pinawin from the firm araucaria point sàrl (Switzerland). As well as providing information about the firm, she also gave us a presentation about a recent Supreme Court Case concerning the legality of customizing Rolex watches.

We were happy to have been visited by Mrs. Karen Lim, Mr. Charles Weigell, Mr. Ashford Tucker, and Mrs. Carole Klinger from the firm of Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C. Our first guests since relocating our office, they provided us with useful information about how to choose goods/services and avoid additional surcharges and fees recently adopted by the USPTO, as well as how to choose trademark usage samples more likely to be accepted for declaration or renewal.

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Ms. Crystal J. Chen, Mr. Sheng-Fang Liu, Mr. Tommy Po-Ping Chiu from the firm of TSAI, LEE & CHEN (Taiwan). They gave us a presentation on several court decisions in non-use cancellation actions concerning the trademarks “Tokyu” and “CROWN” and explained the Taiwan practice and legal standards with respect to what constitutes the use of trademarks. We also discussed recent examination trends concerning design applications as well as the temporary postponement of plans to abolish the current appeal system.