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 as a pioneer in 2007 to revitalize local industry while involving large companies successfully, and attracted attention from other local governments. The basic concept of this model is patented technology transfer from large companies to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It could be a win-win solution for both large companies and SMEs. Large companies desire […]

Satoshi Watanabe of WATANABE Research & Consulting posted several articles in Japan Intellectual Property News regarding the Japanese government’s efforts for the resolution of disputes involving standard essential patents (SEP). His comments are introduced in IAM magazine and Blog that is run by Globe Business Media Group, a publisher of a unique magazine focusing on intellectual property business. For your information, the Japanese government recently introduced an SEP licensing negotiation guide and a non-binding advisory opinion service on standard essentiality. Furthermore, the government is planning to create an International Arbitration Center in Tokyo (IACT) to solve the SEP-related disputes.

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 risk of unnecessary technology disclosure, and therefore reduce patent application filing. At the same time, they are attracted to trade secret protection and its related services such as  timestamp service which is used to prove existence of a particular electrical data at a specific date. Once trade secret or know-how is leaked to the outside, […]

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 shortage of manpower have plagued the home-delivery service companies. Sagawa Express, which once had a virtual monopoly on home-delivery service for Amazon, tried to negotiate price increase with Amazon in vain, and eventually Sagawa Express withdrew from the service for Amazon. After that, Yamato Transport has been undertaking the home-delivery service for Amazon under difficult […]