Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program

Abstract

To facilitate watching inspection of a rejection reason notice with a trademark to be monitored as a cited trademark with respect to an information processing technology for searching for trademarks.SOLUTION: A rejection reason notice latest information acquisition unit 101 acquires a rejection reason notice against an application for trademark registration of an applied trademark and stores rejection reason notice information in a rejection reason notice information table DB 111 and stores cited trademark information about one or more cited trademarks cited in the rejection reason notice into a cited trademark information table DB 112 in association with the rejection reason notice information stored in the DB 111. A report control unit consisting of units 102 and 103 extracts from the DB 112 cited trademark information matching a trademark to be monitored, prepares a report listing the corresponding rejection reason notification information and the applied trademark, and notifies a person who wants to monitor the trade to be monitored of the report.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program for searching for a trademark. [Background technology]

[0002] There is a need for trademark owners to keep an eye on whether or not trademarks similar to those they own have been applied for.

[0003] Conventionally, trademark search technology that enables such watching has been known. For example, the trademark search device described in Patent Document 1 includes a search target trademark information creation unit that extracts trademark application registration information that matches search target creation information from a trademark information database that stores trademark application registration information updated over time and creates search target trademark information, a similarity determination unit that determines trademark application registration information that is similar in pronunciation to the search target trademark information stored in the trademark application registration information database, a search execution unit that excludes and extracts trademark application registration information that satisfies the conditions of the search target creation information from the trademark application registration information determined to be similar by the similarity determination unit, and an extracted information output unit that outputs the trademark extracted by the search execution unit. With this configuration, a trademark search device that can easily conduct watching surveys is realized. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2010-262494 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Here, an effective method of watching is to check whether a trademark owned by a designated applicant or trademark owner (hereinafter, this trademark will be referred to as the "trademark to be watched" and the person will be referred to as the "person wishing to watch") has been cited in a notice of reasons for refusal issued by a patent office examiner during the examination of another trademark registration application (hereinafter, the trademark related to this application will be referred to as the "trademark of interest"). The fact that the patent office examiner pointed out a cited trademark in a notice of reasons for refusal for the trademark of interest indicates that the trademark of interest is likely to be identical or similar to the cited trademark. Therefore, if the trademark to be watched is a cited trademark in the notice of reasons for refusal for the trademark of interest, the person wishing to watch can be sure that a trademark of interest that is likely to be identical or similar to the trademark to be watched has been applied for and is being examined.

[0006] However, in the past, in order for a person wishing to monitor a trademark to confirm whether it was a cited trademark in a notice of refusal, it was necessary for him or her to access the notice of refusal in the examination history information for each of the trademark applications and to check whether the number information identifying the cited trademark listed in the notice of refusal (application number) matched the number information identifying the trademark to be monitored (registration number or application number). This task, when a large number of subjects are surveyed, requires an enormous amount of effort and is cumbersome.

[0007] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to facilitate the carrying out of a watching investigation of a notice of refusal in which a monitored trademark is a cited trademark. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] An information processing device according to one embodiment includes an information processing unit that acquires a notice of rejection reasons for a trademark registration application of the present trademark, which is a trademark filed with the Japan Patent Office, and stores rejection reason notice information related to the notice of rejection reasons in a rejection reason notice information storage unit, and also stores cited trademark information related to one or more cited trademarks cited in the notice of rejection reasons in the cited trademark information storage unit by linking it to the rejection reason notice information stored in the rejection reason notice information storage unit, and a report control unit that extracts cited trademark information identified by number information matching number information identifying the monitored trademark, which is a designated trademark, from the cited trademark information storage unit, extracts rejection reason notice information linked to the extracted cited trademark information from the rejection reason notice information storage unit, creates a monitored trademark citing rejection reason notice report including the extracted rejection reason notice information and information on the present trademark corresponding to the rejection reason notice information, and notifies a person who wishes to monitor the monitored trademark.

[0009] In addition, in one example of an information processing device of another aspect, an latest refusal notification information acquisition unit acquires the latest refusal notification information from a trademark database operated by the Japan Patent Office based on trademark progress information update data, which is the latest update information on the examination progress of trademark registration applications that is periodically provided by the Japan Patent Office.

[0010] Furthermore, an example of an information processing device according to another aspect further includes a customer trademark memory unit that stores trademark registration information of monitored trademarks that a customer wishes to monitor and for which the customer holds trademark rights, and the report control unit periodically creates, for each of the monitored trademarks stored in the customer trademark memory unit, a monitored trademark citing rejection reason notice report regarding the latest rejection reason notice that cites the monitored trademark, and notifies the customer.

[0011] In addition, an example information processing device of another aspect further includes a status monitoring and notification unit that monitors the status of the trademark of the present application corresponding to a notice of rejection that cites the monitored trademark extracted by the report control unit, and notifies a person who wishes to monitor the status of any changes that have occurred. Effect of the Invention

[0012] According to the present invention, it is possible to easily conduct a watching investigation of a notice of refusal in which a monitored trademark is a cited trademark.

[0013] In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain the latest notice of refusal information based on trademark progress information update data, which is the latest update information on the examination progress of trademark registration applications periodically provided by the Japan Patent Office, and to obtain the latest notice of refusal from the trademark database operated by the Japan Patent Office.

[0014] Furthermore, according to the present invention, by storing the monitored trademark in advance in the customer trademark memory unit, it is possible to provide a service of notifying a report of a notice of rejection reasons for citing the monitored trademark to many people who wish to monitor the trademark.

[0015] In addition, according to the present invention, by further monitoring the status of the application trademark corresponding to a notice of rejection citing the monitored trademark, it is possible to monitor changes in the status of the application trademark related to the monitored trademark over time and notify those who wish to monitor the status of any changes that have occurred. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0016] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an information processing device. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a server computer that executes the functions of the information processing device. [Diagram 3] 13 is a flowchart showing an example of a process for acquiring the latest information on notices of reasons for refusal. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a sample of trademark progress information update data provided by the Japan Patent Office. [Diagram 5] 1 is a diagram showing an example of the record configuration of a Patent Office provided information DB and a refusal reason notice information table DB, and the relationship between them. [Figure 6] 1 is a diagram showing an example of data samples for one record each in the Patent Office provided information DB, the rejection notice information table DB, and the cited trademark information table DB. [Figure 7]FIG. 1 is a sample of a notice of reasons for refusal including a list of cited trademarks. [Figure 8] A diagram showing an example of the record configuration of a rejection reason notice information table and a cited trademark information table, and the relationship between them. [Figure 9] 13 is a flowchart showing an example of a monitoring target trademark / present trademark correspondence relationship extraction process. [Figure 10] 13 is a flowchart showing an example of a report creation and notification process. [Figure 11] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a data sample of a report on a notice of reasons for refusal of a trademark cited under monitoring. [Figure 12] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a sample example including a report of a change in the status of the trademark of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0017] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an information processing device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as "this embodiment").

[0018] The latest information acquisition unit for rejection notice 101 acquires a notice of rejection for the application for trademark registration of the present trademark, which is a trademark filed with the Japan Patent Office, and stores the rejection notice information related to the notice of rejection in a notice of rejection reason information table database (hereinafter, "database" will be abbreviated as "DB") 111, which is a notice of rejection reason information storage unit. At the same time, the latest information acquisition unit for rejection notice 101 links cited trademark information related to one or more cited trademarks cited in the notice of rejection reason to the rejection reason information stored in the notice of rejection reason information table DB111, and stores it in a cited trademark information table DB112, which is a cited trademark information storage unit.

[0019] The report control unit, which is composed of the monitored trademark / present trademark correspondence extraction unit 102 and the report creation and notification unit 103, extracts cited trademark information identified by number information matching number information identifying the monitored trademark, which is a designated trademark, from the cited trademark information table DB112. Then, the report control unit extracts refusal notice information linked to the extracted cited trademark information from the refusal notice information table DB111, creates a monitored trademark citing refusal notice report including the extracted refusal notice information and information on the present trademark corresponding to the refusal notice information, and notifies the person who wishes to monitor the monitored trademark.

[0020] At this time, the customer trademark DB 113, which is the customer trademark storage unit, stores trademark registration information of monitored trademarks for which the customer desires to be monitored and for which the customer holds the trademark right. Then, the report control unit periodically creates a monitored trademark citing notification of reasons for refusal report for the latest notification of reasons for refusal citing the monitored trademark for each monitored trademark stored in the customer trademark DB 113, and notifies the customer.

[0021] In the embodiment of the information processing device 100 of Figure 1, the information processing device 100 may further include a status monitoring and notification unit that monitors the status of the trademark of the present application corresponding to the notice of rejection citing the monitored trademark extracted by the report control unit, and notifies the person who wishes to monitor the status of any changes that have occurred.

[0022] Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a server computer that executes the functions of the information processing device 100 in Fig. 1. This hardware includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 201, a memory 202 in which programs are loaded and executed, an external storage device 203 that stores programs, various DBs 110, 111, 112, and 113 in Fig. 1, files 114, etc., a network interface circuit 204 that controls access to the Internet 130 in Fig. 1, an input unit 205 consisting of a keyboard and mouse for accessing a computer of the Patent Office, etc., and a display 206, all of which are connected to each other via a system bus 207.

[0023] The operation of the information processing device 100 having the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described in detail below.

[0024] Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a process for acquiring the latest information of an NOTIFYING REASON FOR REFUSAL, which is a function of the NOTIFYING REASON FOR REFUSAL INSTALLATION INSTALLATION INSTALLATION INSTALLATION PART 101 in Fig. 1. This process is a process in which the CPU 201 in Fig. 2 loads a process program for acquiring the latest information of an NOTIFYING REASON FOR REFUSAL INSTALLATION ...

[0025] The process of acquiring the latest information on notices of reasons for refusal in FIG. 3 is performed periodically, for example, every week, immediately after the day of the week and the time when the Patent Office updates the trademark history information update data 120 provided by the Patent Office.

[0026] In the process of obtaining the latest information on rejection notices in the flowchart of FIG. 3, the CPU 201 first obtains the trademark progress information update data 120 provided by the Patent Office, which is the latest update information on the examination progress of trademark registration applications provided periodically (every week) by the Patent Office, and stores it in the Patent Office provided information DB 110 (step S301 in FIG. 3).

[0027] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a data sample of trademark history information update data 120 provided by the Japan Patent Office. In each of data rows 120(#n-1), 120(#n), and 120(#n+1), one row of data indicates one set of update data. One row of update data is composed of 14 sets of data values ​​separated by tab symbols, which are indicated by horizontal arrows "→" on the drawing. Each data value has a meaning corresponding to the item names, which are also separated by tab symbols, shown in the item name group 400 in FIG. 4. Note that the item name group 400 is displayed for explanatory purposes and is not included in the trademark history information update data 120 actually provided by the Japan Patent Office.

[0028] Fig. 5(a) is a diagram showing an example of a record configuration of the information DB 110 provided by the Patent Office, in which each value separated by a tab in each row of the trademark history information update data 120 provided by the Patent Office as exemplified in Fig. 4 is stored as each item value in the record. Each physical item name in one record in Fig. 5(a) is a field definition set in the information DB 110 provided by the Patent Office, and is the same as each item name separated by a tab in the item name group 400 in Fig. 4. Each logical item name in Fig. 5(a) indicates the meaning of each physical item name in the same row in the right column, and is not included in the actual definition in the information DB 110 provided by the Patent Office.

[0029] FIG. 6(a) is a diagram showing an example of a data sample when the data sample value of the trademark history information update data 120(#n) (dark colored rows) provided by the Patent Office in FIG. 4 is stored in one record of the Patent Office provided information DB 110 having the record structure shown in FIG. 5(a).

[0030] Next, in the process of acquiring the latest information on the notice of reason for refusal in the flowchart of FIG. 3, the CPU 201 causes the latest information on the notice of reason for refusal to be acquired by the acquisition unit 101 in FIG. 1 to acquire a record of update information on the notice of reason for refusal of a newly registered, updated, or added trademark from the Patent Office provided information DB 110 in FIG. 1, which has the example record structure of FIG. 5(a), and registers it in the notice of reason for refusal information table DB 111 in FIG. 1 as the latest information on the notice of reason for refusal (step S302 in FIG. 3).

[0031] Fig. 5(b) is a diagram showing an example of the record configuration of the reason for refusal notice information table DB111 in Fig. 1. Each physical item name in one record in Fig. 5(b) is a field definition set in the reason for refusal notice information table DB111. Each logical item name in Fig. 5(b) indicates the meaning of each physical item name in the same row in the right column, and is not included in the actual definition of the reason for refusal notice information table DB111.

[0032] Now, among the records periodically stored in the Patent Office provided information DB 110 of Figure 1 having the record structure example of Figure 5(a), a record in which the value of the physical item name: "chukanshorui_code" (logical item name: "intermediate document code") in Figure 5(a) is "A131" as illustrated in Figure 6(a), indicates that a notice of rejection has been registered, renewed, or added in the trademark registration application having the application number stored in the physical item name: "shutugan_no" (logical item name: "application number") of that record in the Patent Office database.

[0033] Therefore, in step S301 of Fig. 3, the CPU 201 extracts records in which the value of the physical item name: "chukanshorui_code" (logical item name: "intermediate document code") in Fig. 5(a) is "A131" from among the records periodically stored in the JPO provided information DB 110 in Fig. 1. Then, in step S301, for each record extracted, the CPU 201 executes a database action of inserting or updating each item value of the record in the reason for refusal notice information table DB 111 in Fig. 1 as one record of reason for refusal notice information in the correspondence relationship of the items shown by the dashed arrows from Fig. 5(a) to (b).

[0034] 1, the patent office provided information DB110, the rejection notice information table DB111, the cited trademark information table DB112, and the customer trademark DB113, which will be described later, may each be configured as an SQL (Structured Query Language) database. The process of extracting records from the patent office provided information DB110 and the process of inserting or updating records into the rejection notice information table DB111 can be executed by specifying an SQL statement (SELECT statement, INSERT statement, UPDATE statement, etc.).

[0035] In addition, if rejection reason notification information identical to the rejection reason notification information indicated by the record extracted from the Patent Office provided information DB110 (hasso_bi / HASSO_DATE) field values ​​are the same) already exists in the rejection reason notification information table DB111, the CPU201, in step S301, compares the date value of the "Creation Date" (sakusei_bi) field of the record in the Patent Office provided information DB110 with the date value of the "Registration Date / Update Date / Cited Trademark Creation Date / Addition Date" (CREATE_DATE / UPDATE_DATE / INYO_DATE / ADD_DATE_RIYUTUTI) field of the record in the rejection reason notification information table DB111, and appropriately updates the values ​​of the record in the rejection reason notification information table DB111.

[0036] Figure 6(b) is a diagram showing an example of a data sample in which a sample value of one record of the trademark history information update data 120 provided by the Patent Office on the Patent Office provided information DB110 illustrated in Figure 6(a) is copied as a sample value of one record of the rejection notice information on the rejection notice information table DB111, in accordance with the correspondence relationship of the dashed arrows between Figures 5(a) and 5(b).

[0037] Next, based on the latest information on the notice of rejection registered in the notice of rejection information table DB111, the trademark DB121 provided by the Japan Patent Office is accessed via the Internet 130 in FIG. 1 to obtain the text data of the notice of rejection (step S303 in FIG. 3).

[0038] At present, the process of step S303 is performed manually by being notified that new notice of refusal information has been registered in the notice of refusal information table DB111. More specifically, by using the input unit 205 and display 206 in Fig. 2 to access "Trademark Number Inquiry" on the patent information platform (J-PlatPat), specifying the application number registered in, for example, the logical item name: "Application Number" (physical item name: SYUTUGAN_NO) item of the record of notice of refusal information registered in the notice of refusal information table DB111, opening the page of the relevant trademark of the present application, and further clicking the link of the relevant notice of refusal from the progress information page, the notice of refusal can be printed in, for example, PDF (Portable Document Format) format, and the text data of the notice of refusal can be obtained from the PDF file.

[0039] Meanwhile, in step S303, the Japan Patent Office is currently providing a trial "Application Program Interface (API) for acquiring reasons for refusal of patents." It states that once this is put into full operation, it will be possible to "download a compressed file of the notice of reasons for refusal corresponding to the specified application number." Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, it is considered that the CPU 201 in FIG. 2 will be able to automatically acquire the notice of reasons for refusal by accessing this API in step S3001.

[0040] Fig. 7 is a diagram showing a sample example of a notice of reasons for refusal obtained in step S303 in Fig. 3. In Fig. 7, the dashed frames with reference numbers 701, 702, and 703 are frames and reference numbers for explaining this figure, and are not printed on the actual notice of reasons for refusal. The CPU 201 can fill in each item of the record of the reason for refusal notice information table DB111 illustrated in FIG. 5(b) from the portions of the dashed lines 701 and 702 and the like.

[0041] Referring to the sample example of the rejection notice information table DB111 in FIG. 6(b), it can be seen that items such as “SINSAKAN”, “SINSAKAN_NO”, and “TEKIYOJOBUN” can be obtained from the text data of the rejection notice shown in FIG.

[0042] In addition, in step S303 of FIG. 3, the CPU 201 recognizes the cited trademark box 703 from the text data of the rejection notice shown in FIG. 7, and transcribes it into the item of logical item name: “Cited Trademark” (physical item name: “INYOSYOHYO”) in FIG. 5(b). In the example of Fig. 7, there is one cited trademark, but multiple cited trademarks may be cited in a notice of refusal. Therefore, in step S303 in Fig. 3, CPU201 stores the number information of each cited trademark as an individual record in cited trademark information table DB112 in Fig. 1, which is a child table of notice of refusal information table DB111.

[0043] Fig. 8(a) is the same as Fig. 5(b) in the rejection reason notice information table DB111, and Fig. 8(b) is an example of the record configuration of the cited trademark information table DB112. Also, each dashed arrow in Fig. 8(a) and Fig. 8(b) indicates the correspondence between each item in the rejection reason notice information table DB111 and each item in the cited trademark information table DB112. As shown in Figures 8(a) and (b), in the cited trademark information table DB112, the same logical item name: "Application number" (SYUTUGAN_NO), logical item name: "Registration number" (TOUROKU_NO), logical item name: "Division number" (BUNKATU_NO), logical item name: "Protection number" (physical item name: "BOUGO_NO"), logical item name: "Intermediate record code" (physical item name: "TYUKAN_CODE"), logical item name: "Shipping date" (physical item name: "HASSO_DATE"), logical item name: "Drafting date" (physical item name: "KIAN_DATE"), and logical item name: "Sequence number" (physical item name: "SEQ_NO") are defined as in the rejection notice information table DB111. From the dashed frame 703 of the cited trademark in the sample example of Figure 7, logical item name: "Cited application number" (physical item name: "INY_SYUTUGAN_NO"), logical item name: "Cited registration number" (physical item name: "INY_TOUROKU_NO"), logical item name: "Cited publication number" (physical item name: "INY_KOUKOKU_NO"), etc. are defined.

[0044] Figure 6(c) is a diagram showing a sample example of one record of the rejection reason notice information table DB111 of Figure 6(b) and one record of cited trademark information on the cited trademark information table DB112 generated from the text data of the rejection reason notice illustrated in the corresponding Figure 7. If multiple cited trademarks are listed in one notice of refusal, multiple records corresponding to each of the multiple cited trademarks will be registered in the cited trademark information table DB112. As shown as *1 in the key in Figure 8(a), a combination of item values ​​marked with a ● in Figure 8(a) can uniquely identify a record in the rejection notice information table DB111 from one record in the cited trademark information table DB112.

[0045] After the process of step S303 in FIG. 3, the CPU 201 ends the latest information acquisition process for notice of reasons for refusal shown in FIG.

[0046] Fig. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a report creation and notification process which is a function of the report creation and notification unit 103 in Fig. 1 constituting the report control unit. This process is a process in which the CPU 201 in Fig. 2 loads a report creation and notification process program stored in, for example, the external storage device 203 into the memory 202 and executes it.

[0047] The report creation and notification process in FIG. 10 is executed every time the CPU 201 executes the monitored trademark / present trademark correspondence extraction process in FIG. 9 and creates the monitored trademark / present trademark correspondence file 114 (step S906).

[0048] In the report creation and notification process of Figure 10, the CPU 201 first, in step S1001, extracts data sets one by one from the monitored trademark / present application trademark correspondence file 114 of Figure 1 created, for example, in the memory 202 or external storage device 203 of Figure 2 by executing the monitored trademark / present application trademark correspondence extraction process of Figure 9, and repeatedly executes the series of processes from steps S1003 to S1006 as long as it is determined in step S1002 that extraction is successful, that is, YES.

[0049] In this iterative process, the CPU 201 first acquires, from the customer trademark DB 113, bibliographic items corresponding to the application numbers of the monitored trademarks in the data set extracted in step S1001 (step S1003).

[0050] Next, the CPU 201 obtains the bibliographic information of the rejection notice corresponding to the key item values ​​of the present trademark in the data set extracted in step S1001 (the set of values ​​of the items marked in black in Figures 8(a) and (b)) and the bibliographic information of the present trademark from the rejection notice information table DB111 and the trademark DB121 provided by the Japan Patent Office via the Internet 130 in Figure 1 (step S1004).

[0051] Next, based on the information acquired in step S1004, CPU 201 creates list information that displays a list of the correspondence between the monitored trademark (cited trademark), the present trademark, and the corresponding rejection notice, as illustrated in FIG. 11 (step S1005).

[0052] Then, the CPU 201 attaches the list information created in step S1005 to an email and sends it by email to any one of the user terminal devices 122 #1 to #N in Figure 1 that holds the email address (set in the customer trademark DB 113) of the customer (person wishing to be monitored) of the monitored trademark (step S1006). Thereafter, the CPU 201 returns to the process of step S1001, extracts the next data set from the monitored trademark / present trademark correspondence file 114, and executes the same process.

[0053] When all data sets have been read out from the monitored trademark / present trademark correspondence file 114 and the judgment in step S1002 is NO, the CPU 201 deletes the monitored trademark / present trademark correspondence file 114 from the memory 202 and then terminates the report creation and notification process shown in the flowchart of Figure 10.

[0054] In the embodiment of the information processing device 100 described above, key information of the present application trademark corresponding to a notice of reason for refusal citing a monitored trademark extracted by the monitored trademark / present application trademark correspondence extraction unit 102 in Figure 1 is automatically registered and monitored, and the contents of the changes in status can be reported to a person wishing to monitor the application each time a change in status occurs, for example to the trademark owner who holds the monitored trademark, which is the cited trademark. Specifically, the latest bibliographic information is obtained from the customer trademark DB 113 using the registered number. Next, the bibliographic information of the same trademark from one generation ago is compared with the latest data. Next, the differences are marked. The marked bibliographic items and an explanation of the changes are then sent via email to those who wish to be monitored. Figure 12 shows a sample report of a change in the status of a trademark that is the subject of monitoring. The dark grey marking indicates that a registration number has been assigned to the trademark.

[0055] As described above, according to this embodiment, it becomes possible to easily conduct a watching investigation of a notice of refusal in which a monitored trademark is a cited trademark.

[0056] In addition, according to this embodiment, it is possible to obtain the latest notice of refusal information based on trademark progress information update data, which is the latest update information on the examination progress of trademark registration applications periodically provided by the Japan Patent Office, and to obtain the latest notice of refusal from the trademark database operated by the Japan Patent Office.

[0057] Furthermore, according to this embodiment, by storing the monitored trademark in advance in the customer trademark memory unit, it is possible to provide a service of notifying a report of a notice of rejection reasons for citing the monitored trademark to many people who wish to monitor the trademark.

[0058] In addition, according to this embodiment, by further monitoring the status of the application's trademark corresponding to a notice of rejection citing the monitored trademark, it is possible to monitor changes in the status of the application's trademark related to the monitored trademark over time and notify those who wish to monitor the status of any changes that have occurred. [Explanation of symbols]

[0059] 100 Information processing device 101 Latest Information on Notification of Refusal 102 Monitoring target trademark / application trademark correspondence extraction unit 103 Report Preparation and Notification Department 110 Patent Office Information Database 111 Refusal Notice Information Table DB 112 Citation Trademark Information Table DB 113 Customer trademark DB 114 Monitored trademark / applied trademark correspondence file 120 Trademark history update data provided by the Japan Patent Office 121 Trademark database provided by the Japan Patent Office 122 User terminal equipment 201 CPU 202 Memory 203 External storage device 204 Network Interface Circuit 205 Input section 206 Display 207 System Bus

Claims

1. an latest notification of refusal information acquisition unit that acquires a notification of refusal for an application for trademark registration of the present trademark, which is a trademark filed with the Japan Patent Office, and stores notification of refusal information related to the notification of refusal in a notification of refusal information storage unit, and also stores cited trademark information related to one or more cited trademarks cited in the notification of refusal in a cited trademark information storage unit in association with the notification of refusal information stored in the notification of refusal information storage unit; a report control unit which extracts, for a designated trademark, the cited trademark information identified by number information matching number information identifying the monitored trademark from the cited trademark information storage unit, extracts the notice of refusal information linked to the extracted cited trademark information from the notice of refusal information storage unit, creates a report containing the extracted notice of refusal reason and information on the present application's trademark corresponding to the notice of refusal reason information, and notifies a person who wishes to monitor the monitored trademark; An information processing device comprising:

2. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the latest rejection notice information acquisition unit acquires the latest rejection notice information from a trademark database operated by the Patent Office based on trademark progress information update data, which is the latest update information on the examination progress of trademark registration applications periodically provided by the Patent Office.

3. The method further includes a customer trademark storage unit for storing trademark registration information of the target trademark that the customer desires to monitor and for which the customer has a trademark right, The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the report control unit periodically creates a report of the latest rejection notice citing the monitored trademark for each of the monitored trademarks stored in the customer trademark memory unit, and notifies the customer of the latest rejection notice citing the monitored trademark.

4. The information processing device as described in claim 1, further comprising a status monitoring and notification unit that monitors the status of the application's trademark corresponding to the rejection notice that cites the monitored trademark extracted by the report control unit, and notifies the person wishing to monitor of any changes in status.

5. a rejection notice latest information acquisition process for acquiring a rejection notice for an application for trademark registration of the present trademark, which is a trademark filed with the Japan Patent Office, storing rejection notice information related to the rejection notice in a rejection notice information storage unit, and storing cited trademark information related to one or more cited trademarks cited in the rejection notice in a cited trademark information storage unit in association with the rejection notice information stored in the rejection notice information storage unit; a report control process for extracting, for a designated trademark, the cited trademark information identified by number information matching number information identifying the monitored trademark from the cited trademark information storage unit, extracting the notice of refusal reason information linked to the extracted cited trademark information from the notice of refusal reason information storage unit, creating a report containing the extracted notice of refusal reason information and information on the present application's trademark corresponding to the notice of refusal reason information, and notifying a person who wishes to monitor the monitored trademark; An information processing method for performing the above.

6. a rejection notice latest information acquisition process for acquiring a rejection notice for an application for trademark registration of the present trademark, which is a trademark filed with the Japan Patent Office, storing rejection notice information related to the rejection notice in a rejection notice information storage unit, and storing cited trademark information related to one or more cited trademarks cited in the rejection notice in a cited trademark information storage unit in association with the rejection notice information stored in the rejection notice information storage unit; a report control process for extracting, for a designated trademark, the cited trademark information identified by number information matching number information identifying the monitored trademark from the cited trademark information storage unit, extracting the notice of refusal reason information linked to the extracted cited trademark information from the notice of refusal reason information storage unit, creating a report containing the extracted notice of refusal reason information and information on the present application's trademark corresponding to the notice of refusal reason information, and notifying a person who wishes to monitor the monitored trademark; A program for causing a computer to execute the following.

Images