December 2021 Newsflash After deliberation in the background, Japan’s government is making more moves to enshrine secrecy measures for some intellectual property filed with the JPO and deemed dangerous from a military or other security perspective. Since the last announcement,…
Read more
The Japan Patent Office, along with much of Japanese bureaucracy, has long held onto the custom of requiring official seals on documents. In 2020, partly in view of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, it moved to abolish requirements for these…
Read more
The litigation by Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Honjo Tasuku (professor at Kyoto University) against Ono Pharmaceuticals, which used his co-researched patent in the cancer drug Opdivo, reached a settlement on November 12, 2021. A third party IP specialist thinks this…
Read more
Almost precisely one year ago, the JPO announced that it had registered the first graphic design Design patent–special illumination to surround a motorcycle and increase visibility and communication with other travelers.[1] This became possible under the Japan Design Act revisions…
Read more
The recent IP chatter in Japan has shifted to Japan’s steel titan Nippon Steel’s suing Automaker titan Toyota. Nippon Steel announced on October 14 that it is suing Toyota, a business partner, and Chinese steel rival Baosteel, for infringing a…
Read more
As reported back in May, the Japan Diet passed revisions to the Japan Patent Act that made remote video participation in some patent proceedings legal. Some of the changes started to go into effect from this October 2021, and on…
Read more
We reported less than half a year ago that UNIQLO’s non-viual scanning kiosks were judged patent-infringing by the IP High Court in Tokyo. The victor, IT company Asterisk Inc., was pleased, but wary of a drawn-out IP battle. Indeed, although…
Read more
* Originally published August 26, 2021. Updated September 9, 2021 in light of further news (in bold). In addition, there were reports on September 27 that the Daejeon Court finally ordered the sale of MHI’s siezed IP assets. Mitsubishi Heavy…
Read more
Ishikawa Prefecture (northeast of Kyoto) took fourteen years to develop extremely highly rated grapes, and is in a tough battle to keep the variety “Ruby Roman” for itself abroad. It took fourteen years to develop the variety, with very large,…
Read more
The Japan Patent Office announced in July 2021 that it had been operating in the red since 2014 and was planning to raise the annuities (maintenance fees) for patents, registration and renewal fees for trademarks, and filing and other fees…
Read more