Global Application System
The Korea Intellectual Property Agency announced on March 12 that it launched a new search engine at oami.europa.eu/ec2/tm5 to facilitate the search of products and services commonly acknowledged by the patent offices of the United States, Europe, China, Japan, and Korea, which take up 70 percent of the global total trademark applications.
The website covers approximately 15,000 products, so that applicants can get help in overseas applications.
Each of the five countries has suggested 30 product names and types a month, and those approved by all five countries are registered on the website. Applicants filing applications in these countries based on the search of the entries can be confident that they will not be rejected due to unclear product names or incorrect product classifications.
For reference, 25.3 percent of the overseas trademark applications via the World Intellectual Property Organizations were rejected in 2013, and 17.1 percent in the first half of 2014, respectively.