Chemicals; and others, in class 1
Cosmetics; and others, in class 3

The applied-for-trademark consists of the characters “Exosome Bank” written horizontally in a single row. The characters do not form a phrase listed in general dictionaries. Even though the trademark may be understood as a combination of “Exosome” meaning “ultra-small membrane vesicles, approximately 30 to 100 nanometers in diameter, that are released into the extracellular space within living organisms” and “Bank” meaning “one of financial institutions, etc.”, it is difficult to say that a specific meaning is recognized from “Exosome Bank” as a whole.

The Appeal Examiners did not find any facts that “Exosome Bank” and the corresponding term “Exosome Bank in katakana” have been commonly used to indicate a quality of goods, etc. in the field of the designated goods through ex-officio searches. Further, the Appeal Examiners did not find any circumstances in which traders and consumers recognize “Exosome Bank” as an indication of a quality, etc. of the designated goods.

With the above in mind, it is difficult to say that the applied-for-trademark consists solely of a mark indicating the quality of goods in a common manner.  The applied-for-trademark can serve as a distinguishing mark.

Thus, the applied-for-trademark should be registered.

The applicant argued the following in the appeal:

The meaning of “an institution storing Exosome in preparation for needs” which might be associated with the applied-for-trademark indicates “an institution” as a social organization. It does not indicate chemical quality, function, or cosmetic efficacy of “chemicals” and “cosmetics” directly. Rather, the applied-for-trademark figuratively indicates that “chemicals” and “cosmetics” are rich in exosomes, much like a bank, and was uniquely adopted by the applicant to imply such to consumers.