An old trademark associated with a failed business’s old products, such as tape cassettes, seems like a hard sell. However, Japanese brand “aiwa” is reincarnating under a venture to use the Japanese trademark, purchased from Sony by one of Sony’s…
Read more
Reuters has published its ranking of the 2017 Asia Pacific’s Most Innovative Universities listing 75 schools for technology and intellectual property. The ranking placed 19 Japanese universities, including Tokyo University, Tohoku University, Kyoto University, and Osaka University, but South Korean…
Read more
Keisen Associates is pleased to announce that Mondaq has awarded it the Contributor Most Read In Japan award for May 2017. Members of Keisen Associates have collaborated to find and offer articles of interest for those involved with or considering…
Read more
In a possibly consequential decision, the IP High Court overturned the Tokyo District Court’s infringement case decision against Debiopharm International S.A., judging that plaintiff Nichi-Iko’s patent No. 4430229 was not infringed. What was important about the decision was that the…
Read more
The JPO recently issued the JPO Status Report 2017 (in Japanese and English) to give the public a better idea of how the JPO is working to improve its services. Commissioner Yoshinori Komiya expressed the prospects of the JPO in…
Read more
The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) is known for being strict, even (some would say) overbearing with those who perform music that is covered by their copyrighting policies. JASRAC recently announced plans to charge 2.5%…
Read more
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) continues to expand its Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) network with pilot programs initiated with the National Institutes of Industrial Property (INPI) of Brazil and Argentina, respectively, from April 1, 2017. The JPO plans to start…
Read more
Presiding Judge Misao Shimizu of Japan’s Intellectual Property High Court became its sixth presiding Chief Judge in January 2017. The Hon. Shimizu’s Inaugural Remarks are available on the IP High Court’s website.[1] Japan instituted the IP High Court, connected to…
Read more
Taro Yaguchi, Senior Partner at Keisen Associates, successfully defended the Japanese distributor of a US GPS navigation products producer before the Tokyo District Court, against claims of patent infringement asserted by a Japanese competitor. The Tokyo District Court dismissed the…
Read more
Heads of the Japan Patent Office have recently completed an IP symposium with corresponding leaders in the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) in Kanagawa Prefecture. They have…
Read more