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 by the planned September opening of a new Digital Agency.
This bill for reforming intellectual property procedures, in particular, oral proceedings for patent invalidation trials will be able to be conducted online in videoconferences instead of in person as has been required until now. It also enables the prime minister’s cabinet to issue orders to adjust Japan Patent Office procedure costs more flexibly than the present system does. Also, the former means of filing payment for patent procedures with paper stamps will be replaced with bank wiring means.
Japan is notorious domestically for municipal office and other bureaucratic structures’ slow and paper-bound procedures. This continues to change gradually, pushed partly by COVID-19 and partly by innovation itself.
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Taro Yaguchi
Sources
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). “特許業務のデジタル化推進 特許法など改正案 参院本会議で成立 [Advancing digitization of patent prosecution: revisions to Patent Act, etc. pass on floor of House of Councillors].” https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210514/k10013030081000.html May 14, 2021. Accessed May 21, 2021.
Header image by M Ameen from Pixabay.
