Patent Overview

Good Faith Negotiation Guidelines for SEP Licenses

On March 31, 2022, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan introduced Good Faith Negotiation Guidelines for Standard Essential Patent Licenses (SEPs).
In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, many products are computerized and connected by communication technologies, and this trend creates needs of SEP licensing among different industries. The object of the Guidelines is, therefore, to externally disseminate the rules on good faith negotiations that should be complied with by both SEP holders and implementers so as to improve predictability and transparency of SEP licensing.
This video summarizes the Guidelines to help you understand what is likely required to be presented by each party in each step of negotiations and what might constitute bad faith negotiation.

Advantages of obtaining IP rights in Japan

This short video provides you with some of the advantages of obtaining IP rights in Japan by explaining the following recent changes of situation in Japan:
1. Market in Japan
2. Current situation of Japan
3. Efforts by the Japan Patent Office
4. Possibility of cross-border patent protection by obtaining Internet-related patents in Japan
5. Attractive aspects of Japan as a manufacturing hub and business platform
The video touches upon an important court decision of IP High Court in Japan regarding cross-border patent protection by obtaining Internet-related patents in Japan.
On July 20, 2022, the IP High Court held that, even if the act of working the patented invention is not formally complete in all its elements within the territory of Japan, if it could be evaluated that it is substantially and wholly carried out within the territory of Japan, the patent right of Japan can be enforceable (Dwango v. FC2, et al).

2021 revision overview

This video is for 2021 revision overview for the granting of the relief procedures.
Japan’s intellectual property system has been revised four times so far with regard to relief after the expiration of the term. These amendments have relaxed the time and subjective requirements, increased the number of procedures covered, and ensured sufficiently protection of rights.
However, even with these amendments, there were still two issues: “strict interpretation of “legitimate reasons” and “procedural burden on applicants”.
In order to resolve the above two points, the fifth amendment was made in 2021, which included two amendments: “revise from Due care to unintentional”, and ” submit evidentiary materials from mandatory to voluntary”.

Overview of Patenting Procedures

Patenting Procedures Route