Japan’s Seto Inland Sea holds many islands, and Shodoshima, a larger one, boasts a variety of natural, agricultural, and cultural attractions. Its tourism website shows its efforts to attract visitors and gain a following. Shodojima found itself so popular that…
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Many Japanese people love to eat sea urchins. They also hate food that looks less-than-excellent. So when Kanagawa Prefecture (capital: Yokohama) faced a glut of starved sea urchins and reject-quality cabbages, what did it do? It filed for a trademark….
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The European Patent Office issued reports on its analysis of data regarding global patent filings for technologies serving the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (4IR) in Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), 5G network, and big data on December 10, 2020….
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The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) reported recently that the Japan Patent Office (JPO) will become the world’s first Patent Prosecution Highway (pilot) program partner with France from January 1, 2021, ahead of any other country. The…
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Further to the passing in the Lower House, the Upper House (House of Councillors) of Japan’s National Diet (parliament) debated and passed the revisions to the Plant Variety Protection and Seed Act (“Plant and Seed Act”) on December 2, 2020.[1]…
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Honda announced back in July (reported here) how it had seen good results from its AI-supported patent portfolio experiment. Now, it and Japanese robotic process automation (RPA) leader RPA Holdings have announced they are offering a similar program to others….
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* See a further update on this issue from December 3, 2020. As many cases of plant varieties developed in Japan being sold to producers in other countries and exploited have arisen (see on past governmental plans and a case…
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The Japanese Design Act was revised in 2019, and going into effect on April 1, 2020, graphic images, building exterior, and interior designs (the last one including arrangement of items within spaces–if a unified, aesthetic effect resulted) may be registered….
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The Japanese national Diet enacted revisions to the Copyright Act (chosakuken-hoh) in June 5, 2020 (issue: June 12, 2020). The actual changes have begun to go into effect on the 1st of the present October, and further changes to enforcement…
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In Germany, car manufacturer Daimler AG (maker of Mercedes-Benz) suffered an IP loss at court on September 10, 2020. It was handed a decision by a Munich court that it was infringing upon mobile technology of Japan’s Sharp in its…
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