IFI CLAIMS Patent Services gave its overview of 2021 in US patent filings and more, showing Japan, Korea (ROK), and China (PRC) strongly in second through fourth places for the number of patents awarded last year. IFI reports rather grimly,…
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December 2021 Newsflash After deliberation in the background, Japan’s government is making more moves to enshrine secrecy measures for some intellectual property filed with the JPO and deemed dangerous from a military or other security perspective. Since the last announcement,…
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As reported back in May, the Japan Diet passed revisions to the Japan Patent Act that made remote video participation in some patent proceedings legal. Some of the changes started to go into effect from this October 2021, and on…
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We reported less than half a year ago that UNIQLO’s non-viual scanning kiosks were judged patent-infringing by the IP High Court in Tokyo. The victor, IT company Asterisk Inc., was pleased, but wary of a drawn-out IP battle. Indeed, although…
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Japan’s Patent Act Article 93 allows for enforced licensing of a patent for the public interest, but it has never been successfully used. However, that may change. Takahashi Masayo (Ph.D.) was the first to successfully transplant retinal cells generated through…
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* Originally published August 26, 2021. Updated September 9, 2021 in light of further news (in bold). In addition, there were reports on September 27 that the Daejeon Court finally ordered the sale of MHI’s siezed IP assets. Mitsubishi Heavy…
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What is it worth to fight over patent infringement in Japan? Depending on the field and technology, apparently 3.3 billion yen (about US$ 30 million) in August 2021. Gaming company COLOPL, Inc. (headquarters: Shibuya, Tokyo) developed a popular computer game,…
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The Japan Patent Office Annual Report (特許行政年次報告書) of 2021, with a wealth of data of intellectual property trends in Japan and worldwide, came out with much we can expect from Japan: fast examination results, continuing declines in patent filings domestically…
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The police of Miyagi Prefecture (Tohoku, northeastern Japan) made Japan’s first arrest of those alleged to be producing “fast movies” in violation of the Copyright Act, on June 23, 2021. What is this all about? The “fast movie” (ファスト映画, fast-eiga)…
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As reported in 2019, several leaders of the once-popular Manga-Mura (Manga comic village) portal of illegal manga data were arrested and tried. Finally, on June 2, 2021, Hoshino Romi was convicted for his role in uploading content passed along to…
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