Following the May 13 passage of revisions for the Patent Act, May 25, 2021, a bill for smoothing out copyright issues for digital distributions passed the Upper House (House of Councillors) unanimously. The Copyright Act is being updated to: 1)…
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On May 13, 2021, a bill for further expanding information technologies in Japanese intellectual property, passed the Upper House (House of Councillors) unanimously. This is one of a wave of bills being passed for reforms to digitize Japanese life, symbolized…
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Due to the “fourth wave” of novel coronavirus cases in Japan, Tokyo as well as some western prefectures of Japan were declared under yet another State of Emergency from April 25 to May 11. The relatively rigorous following of warnings…
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While debates on moratorium on intellectual property related to novel coronavirus vaccines continue, Hitachi ABB Power Grids Ltd. (a joint venture) and General Electric (GE) were able to agree to cooperative sharing of intellectual property in another field. These companies…
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The Japan Patent Office published its annual Status Report in March. (You can see our review of previous reports for 2017, 2018, and 2020.) Here are a few of the things we noted. Patent Prosecution in Japan -Steady decline in…
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As noted before, the JPO has been making some progress in modernizing its remote connections with teleconferencing capabilities in the COVID-19 era. Yet users were complaining that they could not reach examiners and other personnel in charge of intellectual property…
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The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) has been engaged in battles to enforce copyright of works it manages against use for free by music schools around Japan. This battle has been ongoing since 2017, and…
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Every year the Ministry of Finance of Japan (MOF) reports on confiscated intellectual property-infringing items imported into Japan (you can review our report on the results of 2017). Customs catches certainly are not comprehensive, but the results continue to concern….
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The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan reported on March 2 that the Cabinet of Prime Minister Suga had approved various proposals to amend intellectual property laws in Japan. The main aims of the revisions would be to…
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Japanese sometimes see China and Korea as the great infringers of intellectual property, but the Japan Patent Office sees the buying and selling of counterfeit and other infringing items in Japan as a problem that cannot be ignored. Fearing increases…
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