“Retail Services or Wholesale Services for A” is Similar to “A”

“Retail services or wholesale services” can be designated as a service in international class 35 in trademark applications in Japan.

You should consider designating such services in your trademark application regarding the mark used for the name of a retail, wholesale, or EC store, for example.

You can designate “retail services or wholesale services” in the manner of “retail services or wholesale services for A (a common name of goods)” like the followings:

Trademarks | Japan | Goods & Services Listed in the Examination Guideline , Version 2017]

17/08/2017

The descriptions shown in the list shall be accepted by JPO certainly.

However, they are not all the acceptable descriptions.

If “A” is clear and concrete enough to specify the item for retail or wholesale in the description of “retail services or wholesale services for A”, it should be acceptable.

Furthermore, please note that the service “retail services or wholesale services for A” is interpreted to be similar to the goods “A” in the Japanese trademark practice.

For instance, the service “retail services or wholesale services for cosmetics” in class 35 is similar to the goods “cosmetics” in class 3.

Therefore, a cross search between classes for goods (class 1 to 34) and class 35 is necessary to anticipate the availability for use and registration of a mark.