If you do not want to search through databases and lists of names of residents of Japan to get a trademark, you can breathe a sigh of relief–if you file from April of this year. What’s the Matter with the…
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Indonesia’s Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP) and Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property in Thailand (DIP) are extending their Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) trial arrangements with the Japan Patent Office 3 years and 2 years, respectively, from the start of…
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1. What is a “Multi-Multi Claim”? “Multi-multi claim” means “any dependent claim that refers to more than one other claim in the alternative (‘multiple dependent claim’) which depends from any other multiple dependent claim”.[1] A multi-multi claim hence exponentially increases…
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Japan’s IP High Court (IPHC) is setting a trend to deny patented programs even if sent from servers outside of Japan, with its May 26, 2023 case DWANGO v. FC2. The IPHC rejects immunity to FC2 simply on grounds that…
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This is our latest update from April 21, 2023 (Japan time). We regularly check for substantial changes to JPO policy regarding COVID-19 and let you know here if there are such. The most recent major policy changes as far as…
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Worried what to do about a divisional patent application while the parent application appeal is pending in Japan? How to handle the fork in the road? Starting from April 1, 2023, for divisional applications filed in conjunction with a Request…
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April 1, 2023 marks an important shift for those who might realize, with dread, that a key patent deadline in Japan has been missed. The standard for Reinstatement (Revival with a late filing) is softening from “Justifiable” to “Unintentional” Delay….
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* Please refer to: our updated summary of the Japan Patent Office’s COVID-19 policies The Japan Patent Office announced, in accordance with the Japanese government’s new stance toward wearing of masks outside and in public places, that it will make…
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The Japanese people have developed a variety of highly valued plant and animal varieties, appreciated worldwide for flavor, size, and more. Much of this took place before or without corporate involvement (agribusiness), but the Japanese government has been trying to…
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According to the Japan Patent Office (JPO), methods for treatment of the human body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practiced on the human body fall outside the scope of “industrially applicable inventions” and are, therefore, unpatentable. In only…
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