* Updated March 10, 2020 to reflect revised rules and practice. A patent’s duration is fairly standard in Japan: 20 years from the filing date. (For a PCT international application that enters the national phase in Japan, that is 20…
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Happy New Year for 2018, again! Last year saw a spate of copyright-related conflicts between the large Japanese music copyright institution, JASRAC, and various private music schools, businesses (where copyrighted BGM was being played), and even musicians. Japan’s legal treatment…
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Japanese translations of technical patent documents can be very costly. Are they necessary? Here are some possible ideas applicants may have to save money–and the risks associated with them. Can I cut translation costs if I prepare the translation myself?…
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We at Keisen Associates wish you a happy and blessed new year in 2018 (year 30 of the Heisei era, in Japan)! 2017 marked a number of efforts to develop better services and information for you. To improve our patent…
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Applicants wonder about filing pre-examination amendments (for example, to delete claims) for the Japanese national stage of their Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) international applications. Filing international phase amendments (under Article 19 or Article 34 of the Patent Cooperation Treaty [PCT])…
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The World Intellectual Property Organization’s report World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) is out, with some noteworthy figures for Japan and the United States among other major economic powers in the world for how their inventors fared in 2016. Patent Filings…
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In 2016, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) issued a patent for a “system” of serving steak meals to fast food chain Ikinari! Steak. The method was fairly simple, and caused a stir because it seemed hardly worthy of a patent….
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In 2017, the JPO had been trying to institute a system of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to force patent owners and prospective licensees to reach positive resolution when negotiations failed. However, the JPO realized that it should hold off on…
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Japanese paperwork is exacting and precise. What happens, then, if you are an applicant or patent owner and your address as registered by the JPO is incorrect or outdated? Do you lose patent rights in Japan if the address on…
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The Japanese court system has been slow to modernize, making it difficult for foreign litigants to deal with lawsuits there. This includes intellectual property cases. The Intellectual Property High Court (IPHC) is set to relocate with a few branches of…
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