Japanese Intellectual Property, Patent and Trademark Law Firm in Japan

Alphabet characters (Roman characters)

uregistrable*

trademarks composed of one or two Roman characters

unregistrable*

trademarks composed of a single Roman character accompanied by simplified Japanese kana characters

unregistrable*

trademarks composed of Japanese katakana characters representing the sound of a single Roman character

registrable

unregistrable

trademarks composed of Japanese katakana characters indicating the sound of two Roman characters

--this does not apply to trademarks connected with goods or services with respect to which Roman characters are customarily used as the symbols or marks of goods or services

unregistrable*

registrable

Trademarks composed of two Roman characters combined with “－“

--this does not apply to trademarks with two Roman characters combined with “&.”

unregistrable*

registrable

one or two Roman characters accompanied by “Co.,” “Ltd.,” or “K.K.,” if “Co.,” “Ltd.” or “K.K.” is judged to respectively mean “Company,” “Limited” or “Kabushiki Kaisha.”
--this does not apply to trademarks with two Roman characters combined with “&.”

registrable

Trademarks with two Roman characters indicated in a monograph like

Numerals

unregistrable*

trademarks composed of numerals, in principle

unregistrable*

trademarks with a digit or two digits of numerals indicated by kana characters representing their sounds, for example“ワンツウ” (one, two), “トウエルブ” (twelve) or “じゅうに” (twelve) or these indications accompanied by the numerals

unregistrable*

trademarks with more than two digits of numerals indicated by kana characters representing their sounds, for example, “ワンハンドレッド アンド トウェンティスリー” (one hundred and twenty three) “ヒャクニジュウサン ” (one hundred and twenty three)

registrable

trademarks with more than two digits of numerals indicated by kana characters representing their sounds, for example, “ ワン ツウ  スリー” (one two three)