JPO and KIPO Published List of Corresponding Similar Group Codes

The Japan Patent Office and the Korean Intellectual Property Office, through a bilateral agreement, have been working on a cooperative project which would allow them to compile a list of similar group codes for trademarks that correspond to one another. The purpose of the project was to improve the predictability of examination outcomes for trademark applications.

The JPO and KIPO recently published the results of this collaborative project as the Japan-Korea Concordance List of Similar Group Codes. The codes also correspond to the Nice Classification (NCL11-2018), the ID List of the TM5, and Madrid Goods and Services Manager (MGS).