Japan to consider regulating GAFA under the secrecy of communication

The previous article covered a failure of legislation for piracy website blocking due to legal considerations of constitutionally guaranteed secrecy of communication. Now the secrecy of communication is likely to apply to foreign platform providers, especially to big tech companies called GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), according to a draft document distributed in an advisory committee […]

Japan fails to legislate for piracy website blocking

Piracy website blocking has been one of the most controversial topics in Japan. In April 2018, the government decided on a policy to legislate for piracy website blocking by Internet providers, to combat piracy websites with copyright infringing content of manga, animation etc. However, it has been strongly opposed by lawyers and academics out of […]

Satoshi Watanabe contributed an article titled “Patent Search & Analysis for Patent Monetization” to Patent News

Satoshi Watanabe contributed an article to a journal for Japanese IP professionals “Patent News” published by Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry. It gives a quick summary on how to use patent information especially for patent monetization. This is a two-part article, the first part was published on January 10 2019 and the second […]

How are trademarks showing era name handled in Japan?

Happy New Year! In 2019, there is a big event in Japan. The current crown prince ascends to the throne on May 1. In conjunction with that, Japan’s era name is also changed. Reportedly, the new name will be announced on April 1, one month prior to the enthronement, to ease the transition including necessary […]