Japan Patent Office

The Trilateral Patent Office Conference: JPO, USPTO, and EPO (November 19, 2004 in the United States)

Japan boasts the world's largest number of patent applications, with 420,000 applications filed annually.
To survive fierce international competition in the increasingly globalizing economy, Japan needs to fully exercise its scientific and technological strengths. To this end, it is essential to have in place a mechanism that creates high-quality technologies, to properly protect and utilize the resulting technological output to the maximum, and to see that profits are allocated to future research and development activities, thus establishing an "intellectual creation cycle" and building an economy that autonomously drives this cycle.
Since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi mentioned the importance of intellectual property in his policy statement in February 2002, the whole Government has been making concerted efforts to rapidly and dynamically strengthen international competitiveness through the creation, protection and utilization of intellectual property, seeking to make Japan an "intellectual property based nation" that will open the way to the future. The Japan Patent Office is involved in both designing systems for, and managing intellectual property rights, and in collaboration with the Office of Intellectual Property Policy in the Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau and the Office of Intellectual Property Protection in the Manufacturing Industries Bureau, it is pushing forward multi-level measures.

>	The Industrial Property Rights System

The intellectual property system is designed to protect the rights of all people engaged in a wide range of intellectual creation activities. The specific fruits of intellectual creation activities are original ideas in the form of inventions and devices, unique designs, and works such as music, novels and paintings, all of which are protected by patent law, utility model law, design law or copyright law. There are also various business notations such as trade names and trademarks used to indicate a company's products or services (often referred to as "brands"). These are protected by the Commercial Code and the Trademark Law, respectively. Collectively, patent rights, utility model rights, design rights and trademarks are called "industrial property rights." The industrial property rights system is the driving force of the intellectual creation cycle. For example, patent rights offer strong protection of outstanding research results by securing rights, provide great incentives for additional R&D. Moreover, this system enables companies to utilize industrial property rights to recoup R&D costs and to reinvest in advanced technology. As above, the industrial property rights system acts as a powerful engine to drive the expansion of the intellectual creation cycle.

Intellectual creation cycle

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>	Aiming for the world's fastest and most accurate patent examination

Currently, patent applicants must wait 26 months for notification of the initial examination result. Speeding up the examination process will lead to early establishment of rights, which will enable top-runner companies to secure their advantage in return for an active approach to research and development. Immediate determination of the patentability of research output will help companies avoid overlapping research. Thus, expeditious examination will contribute to vigorous technology development competition and higher R&D efficiency, leading to dramatic improvements in international competitiveness.
Since 2004 the Patent Office has hired on ten-year contracts, examiners with abundant experience and expertise from the R&D and intellectual property departments of private companies and other organizations, and is increasing the number of such examiners to meet a target of 500 over a five-year period to rapidly strengthen the examination system.
We are also proceeding with the implementation of various measures in accordance with the Expeditious Patent Examination Law enacted in May 2004. We now entrust a larger number of outsourcees with investigating the existence of identical or similar inventions (prior art investigation) for more efficient and expeditious examination.
Furthermore, we are preparing to publish official gazettes carrying information on industrial property rights applied for or registered on the Internet to make them more accessible to users. Through these measures, we aim to shorten the waiting time for examination to the world's shortest at 11 months in 2013, working toward the ultimate goal of zero period of waiting.

>	Promotion of international harmonization

With the progress of economic globalization, there is a pressing need to expeditiously secure rights in all countries of the world, and we have witnessed an increasing number of cases in which applications for the same single patent are being filed in many countries. Faced with such a phenomenon, the burden imposed on the applicant due to procedural differences in each country and to additional factors such as the redundancy of examinations conducted by the patent authorities in each country are posing serious problems. With the intention of resolving these problems, the Japan Patent Office has been making efforts to achieve international harmonization of the industrial property rights system and has taken measures to promote the mutual utilization of examination results.

>	Enhancement of Measures to Combat Counterfeiting

Areas where counterfeit products are manufactured (multiple replies)
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The expansion of trade conducted by Japanese companies throughout Asia, while bringing profit to Japan, is giving rise to the extremely serious problem of counterfeit products flooding the region. The market for counterfeit products sold in China amounts to as much as 3 trillion yen. This flood of counterfeit products is damaging Japanese companies through, for example, the loss of potential markets, deterioration of brand image in the eyes of consumers, and an increase in disputes over liability for manufactured goods. All these problems need to be addressed as soon as possible. The Patent Office is requiring the governments of the infringing countries to impose stricter control over such infringements at Japan-Korea Patent Office Commissioner Meetings or in FTA/EPA negotiations while cooperating in human resource development efforts for control officials in the Asian region.

Poster campaign on eliminating counterfeits and pirated copies

It is also very important that consumers are firmly determined not to buy counterfeit products to stem the damage to Japanese businesses by the inflow of such goods. To this end, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, National Police Agency and Cultural Affairs Agency, the Patent Office launched a "War against Counterfeit Products and Pirated Copies" late last year.
As part of these efforts, the JPO conducted TV and poster PR campaigns to discourage Japanese consumers from thoughtlessly buying counterfeits and pirated copies.

>	Coordination of interests between employees and employers (employees' inventions)

An invention resulting from R&D conducted by an employee as part of his or her work within a company is called an "employee invention." Although such inventions are created through the employee's own efforts and abilities, the employer also is deemed to have contributed by providing the employee with salary, equipment, research expenses, etc. It has often been pointed out, however, that the employer's assessment of the invention's value is not really satisfactory, that the employer is unable to determine what payment will relieve the company of obligations toward the inventor, and that the court's basis for calculating "appropriate consideration" is not sufficiently clear. In view of these controversial points, Article 35 of the Patent Law was modified in the Expeditious Patent Examination Law, and now the rule is to determine "appropriate consideration" between the employer and the employee by voluntary agreement.

>	Protection of attractive brands and designs

Brands are very effective in providing high added value and differentiating products or services, while design has become increasingly important in recent years to clearly and visually express the factors necessary for establishing a brand, such as product concept, technology, quality, and service. The Patent Office is studying how designs or brands should be protected so that a company can make consumers aware of its strengths, and so that consumers can safely enjoy products designed or branded on the basis of those strengths.