[Trademarks] IP High Court, Reiwa 5 (Gyo-Ke) No. 10117 — “Besurikai Tokyo TMS Clinic” (Judge Honda)
Updated: 4 days ago
Article information
Article type: Case note
Category: Trademarks
Topics: Issues discussed in the text
First published on this site: 2026-10-10
Display and classification checked: 2026-10-10
[Trademarks] IP High Court, Reiwa 5 (Gyo-Ke) No. 10117 — “Besurikai Tokyo TMS Clinic” (Judge Honda)
Applied-for mark: “ベスリ会 東京TMSクリニック”
Cited mark: “東京TMSクリニック”
*“ベスリ会,” the name of a medical corporation, has a source-identifying function, but “東京TMSクリニック” can be extracted as the essential part.
(Excerpts from the judgment, translated; portions omitted)
The term “TMS” is not recognized as immediately calling to mind “transcranial magnetic stimulation” or “TMS treatment” as a treatment for depression. The textual portion “東京TMSクリニック,” taken as a whole, functions as a source identifier representing the name of the clinic that provides the services. [...]
The textual portion “ベスリ会,” which indicates the medical corporation’s name, is not devoid of a source-identifying function. However, considering actual trade circumstances in which a medical corporation’s name and a medical institution’s name are used together, its source-identifying function must be regarded as relatively weak within the applied-for mark as a whole, which combines it with “東京TMSクリニック.”
Even where pronunciations and concepts functioning as source identifiers arise from multiple parts of a composite mark, [...] a particular part may be extracted as its essential part where, for example, that part gives traders and consumers a strong and dominant impression as an identifier of the source of services. Accordingly, even if “ベスリ会” has a source-identifying function, this does not prevent extraction of “東京TMSクリニック” as the essential part of the applied-for mark. [...]
Original article (2025-08-07):
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This history records actual publication, display, and classification changes made on this site.
2026-10-10: First published the LinkedIn original on this site and set the classification, article information, and consultation link.
2026-10-10: Aligned the translation link, canonical URL and hreflang with the verified public URLs.
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