Branding, regulation and customs in Japan and Singapore

Abstract

This section introduces the regulatory systems on food safety and the trademark systems of Japan and Singapore. Both countries are strong economies and faced with extremely low food self-sufficiency rates. Despite these similarities, they arrive at very different conclusions as to how to secure food safety. The Madrid Protocol serves the purpose of harmonizing trademark laws and facilitating the registration of trademark rights. Both countries, Japan and Singapore, joined the Protocol, but, while the registration of a trademark has become a very straight forward matter in Singapore, the handling of trademark matters was barely simplified in Japan. The following three sections will give insight into the logic of two very different Asian systems and expose the links between their regulatory and trademark laws.