As of October 21, 2015, petitioners have filed 119 post-grant Opposition cases, which have been possible from April 1, 2015 under the 2014 amendment of Japan’s Patent Act. Of the Oppositions filed, 41 (34%) were filed against patents classified in…
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The JPO has published the completely updated “Examination Guidelines for Patents and Utility Models” and “Examination Handbook for Patents and Utility Models” on September 16, 2015. (The “Guidelines” take effect only for examinations conducted from October 1, 2015.) An important…
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Starting from August 1, 2015, a pilot program is available to applicants who wish to benefit from streamlined sharing of search results between the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Japan Patent Office, for approved U.S. and Japanese…
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The Supreme Court of Japan made a historic decision on Product-By-Process (PBP) claims on June 5, 2015 (Case Nos. Heisei 24 (Ju) 2658 and Heisei 24 (Ju) 2658.) Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, the Grand Panel of Intellectual Property…
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TOKYO- In I-Tech Systems v. C.C.S., Inc., Taro Yaguchi, Senior Partner at Keisen Associates, representing the plaintiff, I-Tech Systems, won on appeal in a revocation action at the Tokyo IP High Court against the JPO’s decision to invalidate the plaintiff’s…
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By Miki Yamaguchi, Technical Advisor, Keisen Associates Starting this April, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) has implemented a change in the post-appeal rebuttal process. As a general rule, if a patent applicant receives a Final Decision of Rejection (FDR, Kyozetsusatei…
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*Note: A newer article published in February 2017, summarizing the content below, is available here. Requirements Then and Now: Patent applications have to be filed before a prior art disclosure. But what if the disclosure is the inventor’s own? Can…
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In an unusual copyright infringement case involving origami, a Japanese origami artist sued a Tokyo network television broadcaster for allegedly reproducing the folding instructions of his original origami top on the company’s web site. The artist claimed the network infringed the artists’ copyright, but is an origami diagram a copyrightable subject matter?
In an effort to ramp up their brand overseas, Toshiba Corp. announced yesterday that it will be stepping up its overseas patent application filings from its current 51% of their combined domestic and international patent application filings to 70% by the year 2014…
Three attorneys and technical advisers from Keisen attended the 2012 Design of Medical Devices Conference(DMD) held at University Hotel Minneapolis on April 10-12, 2012. DMD is the world’s premiere medical devices conference consisting of a 2 day technical session and…
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