일본의 상표불사용취소심판제도와 그 특징에 관한 비교법적 연구

A Comparative Study on Japanese Cancellation Trial System of Trademark Registration Based on Non-Use and Its Characteristics

Under Article 50 of the Japanese Trademark Act, where a request for cancellation of trademark registration based on non-use is filed by a third party, the registration of such trademark may be cancelled for the reason of non-use unless the holder of the trademark right proves the following: (i) Within three years prior to the registration of the request for cancellation, (ii) in Japan, (iii) any of the holder of a trademark right, exclusive licensee or non-exclusive licensee, (iv) in connection with any of the designated goods pertaining to the request, (v) has used the registered trademark. Under the consciousness for the regulations as described above, it is intended in this article to find the direction we should move toward by comparing and analyzing the circumstances regarding issues(for example, formal use, requirements for request, a person requesting a trial, the effectiveness of a final trial decision, etc.) on a system for cancellation based on non-use in the Japanese Trademark Act and its characteristics, and further studying Japanese legislation purposes for seeking for standardization of the criteria about applying regulations of cancellation based on non-use of registered trademark simultaneously.