2021年5月20日、ユニクロを展開するファーストリテイリング社は、IT企業のアスタリスク社と争っていた特許訴訟に敗訴したとのニュースが 伝えられました。 アスタリスク社は、 セルフレジに使用されている商品のタグの情報を読み取る技術の特許 (JP6469758) を保有しており、ファーストリテイリング社に対して、ユニクロで使用しているセルフレジについて、ライセンス料の支払うよう要求していました。しかし、 報道によれば、ファーストリテイリング社は、この特許は無効にされるべきものだから、ゼロ円でのライセンス提供をアスタリスク社に要求していたとのことです。

日本政府が、企業が技術や顧客基盤などの無形資産を一括で担保に入れることができる制度の検討を始めたそうだ。日本では、特に中小企業向けの銀行融資においては、土地や工場などの不動産担保が中心で、事業の価値があまり考慮されていないと指摘されていました。新制度の狙いは、こうした状況を改善することにあります。優れた技術やノウハウを持つ中小企業が、資金調達の機会を増やすことができるのは素晴らしいことです。

2019年11月21日、日本とインドは、特許審査ハイウェイ（PPH）の試行プログラムを開始する合意文書に署名しました。PPHとは、他の特許庁での調査・審査結果を活用して、特許取得を促進する協力プログラムです。このような特許取得促進プログラムでインドと協業するのは日本が最初の国となります。

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.  Arrangement of Issues using web conferencing in some courts: Around February 2020 Submission of briefs using cloud services in some courts : Fiscal 2021 Online oral argument: Fiscal 2022 (after revision of Civil Procedure Law) Online filing of lawsuit: Not yet scheduled It has been pointed out that Japan is behind Singapore, China, South Korea […]

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, my more serious concern is that they have been not increasing investment in patenting in foreign countries either, while increasing foreign sales. The chart shows the transition of foreign patent filing number and the foreign sales of Japanese companies. In fact, Japanese companies have not increased investment in intellectual properties, despite the increasing importance of […]

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 following. User can demand an opinion that a particular patent is NOT a standard essential patent. User can use this service not only for licensing negotiations, but also for the negotiations in patent trade, business transfer involving patent transfer, and creation of security interest in patents. It explicitly describes that, even when JPO provides a […]

Do you think Japanese patents are difficult to use? I visited Chinese IT companies early this month. A person in charge of licensing said Japanese patents are difficult to use, as well as Korean patents. Because the specification, claims and other documents for Japanese patents are written in Japanese language, he is not sure if he understands the patent correctly. Another person from a different company explained how they handle the inventions created in their Japan office. They prepare patent documents in English to file a PCT application. So, they can review the English documents directly, not the translations. This would be not special to this company. For companies which prioritize […]

We Japanese often say “お変わりありませんか？(okawari-arimasenka?)” that means, in English, “Nothing has happened (or everything remains unchanged)?” to someone whom we meet after a long interval. No change is a good thing in Japanese culture. I’m just wondering if we can change such a greeting to something by which we can expect or accelerate change. JPO commissioner Naoko Munakata mentioned the necessity of improvement of Japanese IP litigation system and demonstrated the high level of interest, in an opening speech for Global IP Strategy Forum 2019 which was held on January 28 2019 in Tokyo. However, I have seen a difference of opinion between SMEs and large enterprises,  a conservative court, […]

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 system update and other preparation. From intellectual property perspective, names of goods or services that are just recognized as the era name are not allowed to register trademarks in Japan, because of lack of distinctiveness. The names combined an era name and other non-distinctive word (e.g. generic names) are also not allowed to register trademarks. […]

The discussion on possible revision of Japan’s intellectual property dispute resolution system, reported in the previous article, has started from last October, and the second meeting was held on November 21 2018 at the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), on which I had a chance to sit in. The objective of the meeting was to hear opinions from users of the litigation system, i.e. a lawyer, Masakazu IWAKURA (Partner at TMI Associates), Keidanren for the voice of big business in Japan, and The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) for the voice of SMEs. In their presentations, large companies seemed to want the continuation of the status, while SMEs want […]