翻訳コラム

前回、菊正宗酒造(株)の感覚・触感商標が米国を出願する話をしましたが、この会社は日本で動的商標を出願しています。動く商標、つまり動作の変化を複数枚の写真で特定して出願する商標です。
特許庁ウエブサイトの独立行政法人工業所有権情報・研修館の「J-PlatPat」(特許情報プラットフォーム)で検索できますが、まるで映写フィルムのように、動作の変化の様子を何枚かの写真で特定します。菊正宗酒造(株)の動く商標も、紫の風呂敷に包まれた瓶をほどいていく動作を6枚の写真で特定した登録商標です(商標登録第5804568号)。
動的商標でいつも思い出すのは、子供の頃よく遊んだ、頁を早めくりして一つの動作を表現できる本とか、雑誌の付録についていた映写フィルムを家のシーツに映し出して見る簡単な映画です。スマホで動画が見られるようになった今日、子どもたちはこのような遊びをしないのでしょうが、特許庁の動く商標の公報はこのようなレトロな遊びを思い出させてくれます。スマホで撮影した動画を出願できる日が来るのでしょうか。

Hello again readers! Let's get right into it. I explained before that Kiku-Masamune Brewing Co. Ltd. filed a tactile trademark for a product in the U.S., and they have also already filed a motion trademark in Japan. But how are motion trademarks filed? Essentially, a trademark application is used where a trademark's change of motion is specified through a number of drawings or photographs.

You can look up motion trademarks at your own leisure through “J-PlatPat" (Patent Information Platform) on the JPO website (National Center for Industrial Property Information and Training). Sure enough, you'll find trademarks specified in multiple picture form just like something you may find in a roll of movie film. Kiku-Masamne's registered motion trademark specifies in six photos a purple wrapping cloth wrapped around a glass bottle (Registration No. 5804568).

Motion trademarks always reminds me of those picture flip books you always used to see as a child that formed a single motion when flipped through at high speeds, or those simple movies that could be seen at homes in Japan by projecting a film like appendix to a magazine. It would seem that the children of today don't get a chance to enjoy such things due to smartphones, but upon seeing these public motion trademarks I was reminded of those old fashioned type of fun we used to have as children. But speaking of smartphones, I wonder if a day will ever come where we could register video captured on smartphones?