In 2017, the JPO had been trying to institute a system of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to force patent owners and prospective licensees to reach positive resolution when negotiations failed. However, the JPO realized that it should hold off on…
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Japanese paperwork is exacting and precise. What happens, then, if you are an applicant or patent owner and your address as registered by the JPO is incorrect or outdated? Do you lose patent rights in Japan if the address on…
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The Japanese court system has been slow to modernize, making it difficult for foreign litigants to deal with lawsuits there. This includes intellectual property cases. The Intellectual Property High Court (IPHC) is set to relocate with a few branches of…
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The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Japan Patent Office (JPO), leaders in global intellectual property examinations, have enabled applicants to submit certain documents (such as patent priority documents) from one of the two patent offices to the…
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Now JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) has formally begun a further step in its mission to enforce copyright in a range of public space. On September 25, 2017, the Sapporo District Court in Hokkaido began…
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Biotechnology venture company MYTECH of Kobe, Japan filed a patent application for early detection technology for cancer. However, one of the listed co-applicants and researchers, Associate Professor Hiroaki Ito of Showa University Koto Toyosu Hospital (Tokyo), has accused MYTECH of…
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Representatives for a number of major music schools, particularly those (like Yamaha) involved in sale of musical instruments, and JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) spoke at initial hearings in the Tokyo District Court on September…
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On May 23, 2017, the Japanese Intellectual Property High Court (IPHC) ruled in favor of Keisen’s client Garmin in a patent infringement claim brought by Pioneer (Case No H28(2016)(NE)10096). The IPHC not only unanimously rejected all of Pioneer’s infringement claims…
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Chapter 1 of the 2017 Annual Report by the JPO does not surprise in too many ways. Quantity tends to be stable or declining, but the speed is up. The patent filings to the JPO have continued to decline over…
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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…
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