URGENT NEWS FROM JKA/WF BOARD MEETING

On Jan 8, 2009, at JKA HQ in Tokyo, JKA/WF held its annual Board of Directors meeting. Attendees included:

Ex Officio

Nobuyuki Nakahara, Chairman, JKA (Present)
Motokuni Sugiura, Chief Instructor, JKA (Present)
Yoshiharu Osaka, Senior Managing Director, JKA (Present)

Pan America

Masataka Mori, JKA America (Present)
Takayuki Mikami, JKA America (Present)

Europe

Hideo Ochi, JKA Germany (Absent)
Jorgen Bura, JKA Denmark (Present)

Africa/Middle East

Hideki Okamoto, JKA Egypt (Absent)
Stan Schmidt, JKA South Africa (Absent)

Asia/Oceania

Masaaki Ueki, Deputy Chief Instructor, JKA (Present)
Masahiko Tanaka, Assistant to Deputy Chief Instructor, JKA (Present)

Shihankai

Takeshi Oishi (Present)
Norihiko Iida (Present)
Masahiko Kano (Present)
Toshihiro Mori (Present)
Isao Kawasaki (Present)
Takenori Imura (Present)
Minoru Kawawada (Present)

As a matter of great urgency the Board unanimously passed the following resolutions at this meeting:

1. All JKA individual members and JKA-approved organizations are prohibited from obtaining trademark rights for “JKA,” for the Sun and Moon logo or any such similar pattern, or for any other trademarks which indicate or imply “Japan Karate Association.”

2. If any JKA individual members or JKA-approved organizations have obtained trademark rights for “JKA,” for the Sun and Moon logo or any such similar pattern, or for any other trademarks which indicate or imply “Japan Karate Association” in the past, or have pending applications to obtain the mentioned trademark rights, they must assign their rights or pending applications to JKA HQ unconditionally, within 30 days from January 8, 2009, the date on which these resolutions were passed.

   They must bear any cost incurred for the assignment of the mentioned rights or applications.

   They must also bear any cost JKA HQ incurs, or has incurred, including fees for the Court/Patent Office and fees for lawyers/patent attorneys for litigations, trial, or opposition in regard to trademarks or pending applications.

3. If any JKA individual member or JKA-approved organizations fail to follow resolutions (1) and (2) above they will be penalized.