Today we were happy to host Mr. Simone Bongiovanni, Ms. Elisa Tricerri, and Ms. Kumiko Kunichika from the Italian firm Studio Torta. They were kind enough to provide us with a presentation on anti-counterfeiting measures in Italy and the EU, as well as factors taken in to account when assessing similarity of both trademarks and their relative goods and services. We also discussed how to respond to particular opposition and office action situations.

Ms. Zhao, Mr. Yuan and Ms. Tu from FairSky Law Office (Beijing, China) were kind enough to visit our firm and provide us with a presentation on the current proposals regarding the 5th Revision of the Trademark Law in China. Topics included the increased enforcement of usage requirements and the prohibition of duplicate registrations, as well as penalties under the existing laws.

Ms. Haiyu Li and Ms. Jia Li, both partners at CHOFN IP (China) were kind enough to visit our firm today. They introduced their firm and provided us with more details about the potential changes being considered as the 5th Revision to the Chinese Trademark Law.

Ms. Qui Geng, trademark attorney and partner at Linda Lui & Partners (Shanghai) visited us today and shared with us her thoughts on the fine points of the 5th Revision to the Chinese Trademark Law that is currently under deliberation. She also shared with us some of the more unconventional and innovative steps that can be taken in China to improve the chances of registration as well as the benefits and challenges involved. Ms. Geng also gave us some interesting and valuable insight on steps being taken and considered by the TMO with respect to applications filed by third parties in bad faith. She mentioned that the number of Chinese companies interested in filing in Japan has increased considerably, so we took this opportunity to provide our insight on things to keep in mind when filing applications with the JPO. The small discrepancies between our two country’s systems and the relative work-arounds were interesting to discuss.

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Ms. Patricia Kaim from Von Wobeser y Sierra (Mexico). Being one of the largest full-service law firms in Mexico, Von Wobeser y Sierra also provides a considerable number of IP-related services, including trademark cases, and also have an impressive track record in contractual law. Ms. Kaim explained to us some of the political aspects of administration and inner workings of the Mexican TMO, and how this affects trademark application and registration.