Taiwan
On September 1, 2022, the Taiwanese Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) put new rules into effect governing the examination of trademark distinctiveness.
The updated edition provides additional criteria for the examination of distinctiveness as well as sample justifications for numerical and alphanumeric combinations, among many other amendments to the current guidelines. It is envisaged that by doing this, applicants and examiners would have access to more detailed information about the distinctiveness of trademarks that include numerical elements, particularly those that are used across different sectors.
A number of amendments to the previous regulations have also been introduced. As a result, new standards for country names, geographic images, and geographic names used in product origins descriptions will be developed, along with categories for “popular,” “purely informational,” and “commercial design” visuals. The revised rules will include standards for the inaccurate use and/or misrepresentation of goods of origin in the area of geographical representation.
The new standards also include criteria for selecting the names and pictures of recently departed well-known public personalities as well as phrases and symbols from religion.
Ukraine
The EUIPO has imposed a two-month extension in connection to IP concerns for all parties participating in proceedings before the EUIPO who are domiciled or have a registered office in Ukraine due to the ongoing military conflicts in that country. All time limits that expire between September 2, 2022, and November 1, 2022, are extended by two months under the two-month extension that was published on August 28, 2022. This extension follows earlier Decisions EX-22-5, EX-22-4, and EX-22-2 of the Executive Director of EUIPO that allowed applicants and right holders not to let their IP in this region lapse due to the situation.