On May 16, The Japan Patent Office (JPO) released the updates on business-related inventions which are defined as invention which realizes a business method by using information and communication technology. As previously reported, patent applications of business-related inventions have been on an increasing trend since 2011, and approximately 7,900 patent applications for business-related inventions were […]
I had many opportunities to talk with intellectual property service providers during my two weeks trip to Seattle. Some of these firms devise a way to improve price competitiveness. Generally, in our globalized world, jobs tend to move to cheaper-labor countries or regions. The IP industry seems to be no exception. As an example, there […]
Japan may become a better option as a place to solve international disputes even for foreign companies. It is reported that the Japanese government is considering legal revision to make it easier for foreign lawyers to work in Japan, and may introduce the bill to the extraordinary Diet session this year. Specifically, the legal revision […]
During a business trip to Shenzhen, we had a chance to talk with a Chinese company Andun which provides an intellectual property protection platform against counterfeit products. Andun has been building a network of lawyers to investigate infringing products and stop infringement activities for its customers. An interesting point of the business model is that […]
On April 13 2018, the Japanese government published the estimated population in Japan. The total population is 126.76 million, as of October 1 2017. It decreases 227 thousand (0.18%) from the previous year, and decreases for the seventh consecutive year. The chart shows the number of increase-decrease in population (bar chart) and the increase-decrease rate […]
I will make a business trip to Shenzhen, China next week to attend an IP-related event called IPBC (Intellectual Property Business Congress) and also to have several meetings with Chinese firms to discuss potential businesses. As a matter of fact, every time I visit China, especially Beijing, I’m worried about air pollution while checking a […]
I attended a trading show specializing in character and brand licensing, Licensing Japan, which was held in Tokyo on April 4th to 6th 2018. Japanese people of all ages love characters of TV animations, movies, games and the like. It’s said that some people seek healing through such characters. The market size of Japanese domestic character goods […]
After having posted the article regarding the intellectual property business matching model, we received inquiries on the model. So, we would like to explain it in a little more detail here, based on the material we received from a local government. It’s called “Kawasaki model” in Japan, because Kawasaki-City started a project under this model […]
It is reported that Japanese companies’ internal documents marked “CONFIDENTIAL” are posted on Baidu document-sharing site. 186 companies’ confidential documents which includes a product diagram have been reportedly posted on this site between June 2017 and February 2018. Japanese companies today carefully review and select their technologies to be filed patent applications, considering cost and […]
Japanese home-delivery service companies are faced with challenges. In a sense, e-commerce players are the same. Transaction volume has increased due to expansion of e-commerce such as Amazon, but it is difficult for home-delivery service companies to generate a good profit. The requirements of nationwide delivery, same-day or next-day delivery, and quantity discount, and also […]