Japanese trademark law provides that trademarks by which consumers are unable to recognize the marked goods or services as those pertaining to a business of a particular person are
unregistrable.

The above-captioned trademark “” (Japanese Katakana, corresponding to “high risk high return” in English) was rejected in the examination stage. The examiner asserted that the trademark “” is merely considered to be the principle “high levels of uncertainty (high-risk) are associated with high potential returns.” Thus, the trademark “” has no distinctive characteristics with regard to its designated services.

The applicant appealed the rejection. The three appeal examiners judged that it is difficult to say that the trademark “” has no distinctive characteristics with regard to its designated services, even if it means occasionally that “high levels of uncertainty(high-risk) are associated with high potential returns” as a whole.
Further, it is also difficult to say that it is a catchphrase with regard to its designated services and that it shows contents of the services directly and particularly.

In addition, the appeal examiners did not find that the trademark “” has been used commercially as a catchphrase and/or to show contents and the like of services in the field of its designated services in common, according to ex officio searches.

Thus, the trademark “” can fulfill the requirement of distinctive character with regard to its designated services. It is difficult to say that consumers are unable to recognize the services as those pertaining to a business of a particular person.