The Japan Patent Office had never given itself a patent . . . until now. It awarded itself a patent for an invention by seven of its own examiners, who had programming skills, a patent for a multilingual patent searching…
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The Japan Patent Office (JPO) decided, on April 3, 2020, to provide a wide range of remedies for most of the missed deadlines for those who have been affected by the COVID-19 related restrictions. It is still recommended for our…
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Entering May, a number of major Japanese corporations like Toyota, Canon, and Shimadzu have been announcing their declaration not to assert IP rights for ideas used to fight the novel coronavirus that is impacting the world so heavily now. This…
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* Please see our up-to-date summary on the Japan Patent Office’s covid policies, including late filing remedies when COVID-19 caused a delay in filing. The Japan Patent Office (JPO) announced April 24, 2020 further remedies to allow applicants who were…
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The Japan Patent Office (JPO) decided, on April 3, 2020, to provide a wide range of remedies for most of the missed deadlines for those who have been affected by the COVID-19 related restrictions. It is still recommended for our…
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Japan does not have a “fair use” doctrine such as is employed by the United States regarding using copyrighted materials for nonprofit, educational purposes. However, its Copyright Act has been revised and its new provisions are going into effect in…
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First and foremost, we hope you and your families are in good health. We have a couple of updates for you as of the April 10 situation. 1. Courts on Rescheduling of Hearings Although the courts have not issued an…
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* Original: March 20, 2020. Update: April 7, 2020. Interviews with examiners are a vital tool during patent prosecution in Japan–able to make the difference between moving toward allowance and receiving a rejection. They have not always, however, been easily…
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A few years ago, we reported that music schools were suing the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC). Since then, we produced updates in 2018 and last month. Finally, the decision of the Tokyo District Court…
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Recently, clients have been asking us about reinstatement or other procedures to save cases that were delayed due to restrictions brought about by the novel coronavirus COVID-19. We want to share information on this pressing matter. As you may know,…
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