Intellectual Property law
Koji Kawabata gave a presentation at 2023 IPO (Intellectual Properties Owners Assosiation) annual meeting in Boston regarding resent updates on Extraterritorial Reach on Japan Patent Law for Internet-related Patents. The presentation materials is provided below. If you have any question, let us know.
For years, Japan was one of the countries that accept a multiple dependent claim which refers to other multiple dependent claims (“multiple-multiple dependent claim”) in patent applications. However, multiple-multiple dependent claims are no longer acceptable – effective April 1, 2022.
Continue reading “No Longer Acceptable – Multiple-Multiple Dependent Claims – Japan”
Architectural works including buildings, stadiums, bridges, antenna towers, and other artificial constructions become eligible for design patents since the Japanese Design Patent Act Reform came into effect on April 1, 2020. The Japan Patent Office (JPO) recently announced that four design patents for architectural works – a commercial building, a train station building, an interior of book store, and an interior of belt conveyer sushi restaurant – have been registered for the first time ever. See METI’s website.
We are happy to assist you to obtain design patents as well as utility patents. If you have any question regarding the Japanese law and practice, feel free to contact us.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been used in a wide variety of areas, including image processing, targeting advertising, natural language processing, robotics, and medical diagnoses. According to the Japan Patent Office’s (JPO’s) annual report, patent applications on AI-related inventions have rapidly increased in number in recent years.
To assist examiners and applicants in understanding how the JPO applies the written description requirement to particular situations, the Office has updated its Examination Handbook to include new Examples 46-51 regarding AI-related inventions.
A machine learning algorithm learns from a training dataset to build a mathematical model. The training dataset includes multiple datasets, typically, example pairs of input and the corresponding output. For example, multiple datasets may include ads data on advertisement activities for a particular product, review data on reviews from customers for the product, and sales amount data for the product. The mathematical model leans to predict sales amount of a similar product in response to receiving ads and review data for the similar product.
Claims may recite a particular mathematical model learned from a training dataset including multiple datasets. Based on the new Examples, the written description requirement is considered to be satisfied in a case where:
The JPO’s materials can be found in the following website.
https://www.jpo.go.jp/e/system/laws/rule/guideline/patent/ai_jirei_e.html
We are excited to share our firm, KTSIP Osaka, starts collaborating with Osaka Innovation Hub (OIH) to support startups on intellectual property matters. The OIH is the Osaka City government-backed startup community including more than 800 startups and more than 300 supporters. We hope our professional services help startups to boost their innovations and businesses.
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) offers a fee reduction program for examination fees and issue fees for patent applications. A variety of entities can apply to the program.
Thanks to this program, our clients have received great benefit of US$1021.00 per case in average for the past three years. Don’t forget to have your Japanese associates or representatives to file a petition for participating the program if you or your clients meet requirements.
Eligible applicants include:
For more information, especially details of the requirements, click the link below to get a leaflet provided by the JPO.
https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/process/tesuryo/genmen/genmen20190401/document/index/leaflet_e.pdf