The Japan Patent Office published its annual Status Report in April. Here are a few of the things we noted.
Patent Prosecution in Japan
-Steady decline in domestic and international patent filings (under 345,000 in 2010 and nearly 308,000 in 2019; p. 12).
-Very short average total pendency for patent applications of 14.1 months from request for examination to final decision, 9.3 months to first action (OA) (p. 4)
-Steady rise in number of requests for accelerated examinations of patent applications since 2015–and first action pendency for such cases averaged 2.5 months (pp. 52-53)!
Design Registrations
-Design registration filings in Japan stayed slightly above or below 30,000 per year since 2010-2019. Of these, nearly 150,000 were domestic and over 2,100 were filed from the United States of America (p. 23-24).
-Average total pendency for design registrations in Japan was 7.0 months (p. 63).
Trademark Registrations
Trademark applications for registration in Japan stayed at about 170,000 cases (non-International) for 2017-2019. In 2019, nearly 28,000 of 29,400 were domestic and close to 10,000 were filed from China (p. 28-29).
Average total pendency for tradmeark registrations in Japan was 9.3 months (p. 67).
Noteworthy
The JPO touted a program meant to approach a company’s innovation holistically through collaborative examination among examiners of patent, design, and trademark registrations for the same project by an applicant. This “Collective Examinations for IP Portfolio Supporting Business Strategy” meant that several dozen applicants were able to file for such examinations to help them get rights in a more efficient manner to meet their business plans (p. 57). This may be an interesting option for applicants wanting to make a successful entry to the Japanese market.
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Taro Yaguchi.
Sources
Japan Patent Office. “特許庁ステータスレポート2020 [JPO Status report 2020]” https://www.jpo.go.jp/resources/report/statusreport/2020/index.html, PDF: https://www.jpo.go.jp/resources/report/statusreport/2020/document/index/all.pdf Published March 2020. Accessed June 2, 2020.
