On September 11 2019, Japan IP High Court decided a patent infringement case between Japanese game companies, Capcom and Koei Tecmo Games. In this case, Capcom alleges Koei Tecmo has infringed on its two patents JP3350773 and JP3295771 in Koei Tecmo’s action games (Dynasty Warriors) and Samurai Warriors and horror game (Fatal Frame). The 773 patent covers a feature […]
Super Typhoon Hagibis hit Japan on October 12. I was safe, but 21 riverbank failures were reported the next day. Japan was just hit by Typhoon Faxai in early September. Typhoon Faxai was said to be the most powerful typhoon on record which had ever landed Kanto region (Tokyo is included there). Some people have […]
Finally, Japan’s courts are going to use information technologies for proceedings. Despite widespread use of IT in daily life, we have been required to conduct paper-based procedures and go to court for a brief preparatory proceeding. It would be welcome to improve this situation, but it’s too slow. The reported rough schedule is as follows. […]
Japan’s Tokyo and Osaka district courts will start an intellectual property mediation service in October 2019. The Tokyo district court published the operational guidelines for the new service on August 1. The purpose of this service is to solve an IP dispute quickly through a discussion between both parties, by advice or opinion from a mediation […]
Japan Patent Office (JPO) published an annual report on July 12 2019. According to the report, 313,567 patent applications were filed in Japan in 2018. And, 253,000 patent applications among them were filed by domestic applicants. It slightly decreased than last year. As you may know, Japanese companies have been reducing investment in Japanese patents. However, […]
JPO’s SEP advisory opinion service has been updated for cases received on or after July 1 2019. This service started from April 2018, to provide a JPO’s non-binding opinion on whether a particular patent is a standard essential patent (SEP). We covered this service in the previous article here. The changes in the user’s guide include the […]
Japanese large companies have been stealing SMEs’ intellectual property. This issue was brought up in a working group discussing the improvement of business conditions for SMEs or subcontracting companies, as reported in our previous article. Then, Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) conducted surveys on the handling intellectual property in the transactions in manufacturing industry, and […]
On June 7 2019, Japan Intellectual Property High Court ruled standard for calculating damages, especially deductible expenses, in a patent infringement case on carbonated pack cosmetics. Below is the summary of the decision. 1. Presumed damages Japanese patent law provides provisions to make it easier for patent holders to prove the amount of damages. One […]
Previously on this blog, we featured a story about a fight on patent royalty between a university researcher and a licensee company. And, it suggested a problem of a talent shortage for intellectual property in the university. Licensing Revenues of Japanese Universities When talking about licensing revenues of universities, Japanese universities are often compared with American universities. […]
In response to the global trends, the Japanese government announced a policy to strengthen the personal data protection on April 25 2019. It will enhance the right for individuals to demand companies to stop using their personal information. Under the current law, individuals can demand it, only if such data has been fraudulently acquired or used for […]