Can I register a trademark in a language other than English?
Can I register a trademark in a language other than English?
A trademark registration application must contain a sufficient transliteration and translation of the relevant characters when a trade mark uses a word or words written in characters other than Roman. A transliteration depicts the word’s pronunciation in the original language as opposed to a translation, which provides the word’s meaning in English.
As a result, when the trademark is assessed—as it must be—by both its sound and its sense, they work in concert to aid the Registrar in determining whether any objections should be made. In the absence of this, an applicant might be able to register a term—say, let’s “good”—by transcribing it into Tamil or Russian Khmer characters and obtaining an illegitimate and unfair monopoly.
Registrar’s Requirements
In general, the Registrar may request an exact translation and transliteration of any word or words in a trade mark that are not in English; however, commonly, the Registrar won’t request a translation of words in Bahasa Melayu. Therefore, each other language must be translated, and the translation as well as the language’s name must be entered on the application.
What Is the Difference Between Transliteration and Translation?
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Transliteration depicts the word’s pronunciation in the original language — showing how the characters sound when spoken.
Translation provides the word’s meaning in English — what the word actually means.
Example: The Chinese characters 好 would be transliterated as “hǎo” (pronunciation) and translated as “good” (meaning).
Why Does MyIPO Require Both Translation and Transliteration?
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Trademarks are assessed by both sound (how they’re pronounced) and sense (what they mean). Both elements help the Registrar determine whether objections should be made. Without this requirement, applicants could circumvent descriptive word restrictions by simply writing common words like “good” or “best” in non-Roman characters, obtaining an unfair monopoly over descriptive terms.
Do I Need to Translate Bahasa Melayu Words?
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Commonly, the Registrar won’t request a translation of words in Bahasa Melayu since it is Malaysia’s national language. However, for all other languages (Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc.), you must provide both the translation and transliteration, along with the language name, on your trademark application.
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