The Japan Patent Office’s (JPO) 2010 Annual Report was published in May. The 200-page report disclosed both domestic and international trends in applications, registrations, time for pendency, number of trials and other data of interest. The following are some of…
Read more
The Japan Patent Office announced that the 2011 Off The Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake officially qualifies for the measures defined in Article 2, Section 1 of the Act on Special Measures Concerning the Preservation of Rights and Interests of…
Read more
An international pact on tackling counterfeit and pirated goods was tentatively agreed upon among 11 nations and regions in a global negotiation that took place October 2 in Tokyo. The main feature of this Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA is…
Read more
by Keiko K. Middleton, IP Technical Advisor, and Taro Yaguchi, Japanese Patent Attorney Outside Japan, the existence of Japan’s strict rules as to the contents of a Certificate of Assignment are not well-known. The Certificate of Assignment is a document…
Read more
Tetsuhiro Hosono resigned as commissioner of the Japan Patent Office (JPO) on August 23, 2010, and was replaced by Yoshiyuki Iwai. In his inauguration speech address, Iwai said he will continue to overhaul the patent system to meet the demands…
Read more
At the 3rd meeting of the Committee on Examination Standards held on June 30, 2009, the Committee concluded that a revision of the examination guidelines will not be necessary at this time in light of stable granting of patent rights…
Read more
by Konomi Takeshita, Patent AttorneyRecently, Japan and China appear to be bolstering their cooperation in improving the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs), in order to support economic stability in the region. In June 2009, the two countries signed a…
Read more
Effective January 2010, several amendments to the current copyright law will go into effect. There are several clauses included in the revision, but the two main issues are 1) the illegal downloading of copyrighted material, 2) legalization of internet search…
Read more
Effective April 1, 2009, provisional exclusive license and/or provisional non-exclusive license can be registered at the Japan Patent Office based on a license agreement before an application is granted a patent. The new recordation system will provide protection for the…
Read more
Japan’s Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters (IPSH) held its 22nd meeting on April 21 with the purpose of mapping out a five-year National Intellectual Property Strategy program. The IPSH was created in 2003 by then Prime Minister Jun’ichiro Koizumi, an advocate…
Read more