Greetings for the new year of 2021! 2020’s difficulties carry over into this year, but we are hopeful. Society and culture are shifting due to COVID-19 and global changes. Japan, often technologically advanced while administratively reactive, has been adjusting in its own ways and trying to keep on course to shore up and bolster intellectual property at home and abroad.
Here is our roundup of Japan intellectual property news for 2020, as we look to what seemed particularly noteworthy for our friends and associates.
Novel Coronavirus Pandemic
– Updates on JPO policy changes and remedies for IP issues due to COVID-19, summarizing key changes
– The Japan Patent Office’s increasing openness to video conference interviews with JPO examiners from early this year dovetails with pressing need for remote interactions
Japan’s IP Policy Changes in 2020
– Agriculture: Livestock strain reproduction limitations now in place, and revision of Plant Variety Protection and Seed Act going into effect mostly from April 2021
– Patent terms: extensions given to all types of technology under extenuating circumstances, from March 2020
– Design Act: under April revisions, new kinds of designs being allowed and registered from late 2020
– Copyright Act changes: stricter enforcement against digital piracy implemented from October 2020
International agreements
– PPH: new with France from 2021, started in January 2020 with Saudi Arabia
– Japan and UK agree to implement extended Design terms of 25 years
If there is anything you want to learn from us in 2021, please contact us!
* The information provided on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice.
** For questions or consultation, please contact us for more information.
Taro Yaguchi
Sources
Header image by マサコ アーント (auntmasako) from Pixabay
