We are delighted to announce the partnership with IPwe to introduce their unique patent transaction platform to Japan. IPwe created the first platform for the world’s patent ecosystem, connecting buyers and sellers of patents and patent-related services, creating a tradable asset. IPwe leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, predictive analytics and blockchain to unlock global patent value.  Please contact us for more information. 

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 published the report on June 14 2019. JFTC had responses from 15,875 manufacturers, and received reports of 726 incidents. The reported incidents include: Forcing the disclosure of know-how, to manufacture in-house or make other cheaper companies manufacture the product using such know-how. Doing joint research only by name, in which only a subcontracting company works […]

It is reported that a consortium called “InnovationTech Consortium” launches in Japan on April 15 2019. In this consortium, the member companies share and exchange information on technologies and know-hows that lead to new businesses. Reportedly, more than 40 Japanese companies will participate in the consortium at first, which include Toyota, All Nippon Airways, Asahi Group, ITOCHU, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, and Dentsu, which are all Japanese leading companies. They expect 100 companies to join the consortium by 2020. Also, they will not prevent their competitors from joining the consortium. In the consortium, a company shares a business model and/or technologies under consideration, and other companies having an interest in […]

A Japanese local government Kawasaki-city, which plays an active role in patent licensing between large companies and SMEs as presented here, has set out on a new endeavor. Kawasaki-city invites creators to an IP business matching event to ask them to propose applications of patented technologies of participant large companies. For this, Kawasaki-city works with an agent company CREEK & RIVER to ask dispatch of the creators. Here is a press release (in Japanese) for this project, published by CREEK & RIVER. In this scheme, the key is whether or not the creators can propose specific products that SMEs are most interested in implementing such patented technologies. Also, extra care […]

As previously reported, the progress of open innovation is slow in Japan. However, the government has been actively developing measures to promote open innovation. For example, it prepared “University Factbook” which provides contact information of business-academia collaboration office, performance of joint / contract research, performance of patent filing and utilization, and technology field of patent applications and other information of each university, and also announced the scheme of “Innovation Management Hub” which sets up a proven TLO to assist technology transfer for local universities. A recent noteworthy measure is the development of “IP asset platform” to match domestic and international needs with Japanese IP assets such as technology seeds, which […]

Open innovation is essential for companies. It has been said for quite some time now. However, many of Japanese companies seem to be not yet able to make good use of open innovation, comparing to European and American companies. The Japanese government released the White Paper on Open Innovation (the second edition) on June 27 2018. It shows the current status of open innovation and some successful cases in Japan. The findings are that: Collaborative or contracted research between private companies and universities or public institutions has been increasing both in the number of cases and in terms of expense. However, both the proportion of research expense to universities in the […]

A global automotive company is looking for new services or application for connected car. So, we are looking for persons who are willing to develop new ideas or innovations (inventions) for the automotive company via an open-innovation platform. In this project, we are working with Xinova which provides the open-innovation platform with inventor network worldwide.  We can give you documents for detailed information which includes problem definition, examples of existing relevant technologies, and requirements for the ideas to be proposed. And if you develop such good ideas that the company selects for its use, you will be able to receive monetary rewards.  If you have interest in such open innovation activities, […]

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 […]

A customer of ours is looking for new solutions in the field of cyber security. So, we are now looking for innovators or inventors in this field. If you are willing to help us, or if you know someone who’s a good fit, please let us know. We can give you documents for detailed information which includes problem definition, examples of existing relevant technologies, and requirements for solutions to be proposed. If you develop such good solutions that the customer likes, you will be able to receive monetary rewards. Please join a network of innovators worldwide to solve this challenge.

On February 7 2018, Fuji Xerox announced that it will roll out the patent licensing business to SMEs. In Japan, a business model for large companies to license their unused patents to SMEs to help such SMEs develop new products or create new business is getting a lot attention lately. Fuji Xerox has been participating in intellectual property business matching between SMEs and large companies since 2016 which is a local government project. Now it has signed a patent license agreement with a company in Yokohama, and made this announcement. This is the first success case in the IP business matching for Fuji Xerox. This business model brings the following […]