table of contents
December [General] Newsletter
Developments in the European Unitary Patent
The Special Committee meeting on 9 and 10 October 2024 confirmed how popular the new system is already with users, as evidenced by the 40,000 requests for unitary effect. Today, one in four patents granted by the EPO has unitary effect, a figure that was not expected to be reached so soon. More than half of the top 25 requesters of unitary effect are European, and more than one third of the requests originating in Europe come from small and medium-sized enterprises, universities and public research institutes. The "Report on the Future of European Competitiveness" presented to the European Commission last month by Mario Draghi (former President of the European Central Bank) highlights the importance of the unitary patent system for European innovation and encourages all EU member states to join the unitary patent system.
The Special Committee also welcomed Romania becoming the 18th Member State from 1 September 2024 onwards, and requested that over 1,700 users postpone their registration of unitary effect from June to August 2024 in order to benefit from the expanded territorial scope. This smooth accession reflects successful preparations by Romania and the EPO, and highlights that the System is well prepared for further accessions in the future. The transparency provided by the Unified Patent Dashboard, with definitive key data including patent acquisition rates by country, was praised.
The Special Committee noted the EPO's unitary patent work, the latest developments in the UPC and updates on the cooperation between the two Organizations, and unanimously expressed a favorable opinion on the proposed budget for the unitary patent for 2025, which projects an annual grant rate of 27% in 2025 and 29% in 2026.
Finally, the Special Committee supported the early entry into force of the proposed amendments to the Unified Patent Regulation to implement the 14th round of sanctions against Russia.
Follow-up seminar held with the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO)
On November 6, 2024, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) held a follow-up seminar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, together with the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) for graduates of the JPO/IPR training program in Malaysia.
The seminar, which had the theme of "Patent Opposition Systems," was attended by approximately 100 people involved in intellectual property rights, including MyIPO officials, universities, research institutes, law firms, etc., and deepened their understanding of recent trends in intellectual property policies in both countries, particularly the patent opposition systems.
The JPO will continue to support the development and improvement of the intellectual property environment in foreign countries, such as Malaysia, in order to create an environment in which intellectual property can be secured swiftly and smoothly and properly protected.
Application status of AI-related inventions
On October 31, the Japan Patent Office reported the results of its 2024 “Survey on the Application Status of AI-Related Inventions.”
The number of applications for AI-related inventions has increased sharply since 2014, with approximately 10,300 applications in 2022. The number of patent applications for AI-related inventions with G06N (AI core technology) assigned as FI in 2022 was approximately 3,000, a figure that has slowed somewhat in growth but is still on the rise.
In recent years, "generative AI" such as ChatGPT, a type of deep learning, has not only been the subject of evaluation in various tasks in academia but has also sparked social debate, and is expected to have an impact on future AI-related inventions.
As for the main classification of AI-related inventions, other than G06N (AI core technology), G06T and G06V (image processing/recognition) are the most common. In addition, the number of main classifications lumped together under "other" is also on the rise, suggesting that the scope of application of AI technology is expanding.
The number of applications for AI-related inventions that mention CNN has been increasing since 2014. On the other hand, the number of applications for AI-related inventions that mention deep reinforcement learning has remained stable in recent years. In addition, the number of applications for AI-related inventions that mention transformers is on the rise, having exceeded patent applications for deep reinforcement learning in 2020.
The number of applications granted G06N (AI core technology) in Japan, Europe, China and Korea is on the rise, with China in particular standing out in terms of the number of applications (67,000 applications: 2021), making it the main destination for applications among the five offices.
Newsletter translated into English
Progress of the European Unified Patent
A Special Committee meeting, held on October 9 and 10, 2024, confirmed how widespread the new European Unified Patent system has already become among users, as evidenced by 40,000 requests for unitary effect. Today, one in four patents granted by the EPO is a patent with unitary effect, and such early success of the system was not expected. More than half of the top 25 claimants for unitary effect are from Europe, and more than a third of the requests originating in Europe are from SMEs, universities, and public research institutions. The “Future of European Competitiveness” report submitted to the European Commission last month by Mario Draghi (former President of the European Central Bank) emphasizes the importance of the unitary patent system for Europe's technological innovation and encourages all EU member states to join the system.
The Special Committee also welcomed the inclusion from September 1, 2024 of Romania as its 18th member, and requested that the registration of the unitary effect be postponed so that more than 1,700 users can benefit from the expanded territorial scope between June and August 2024. This smooth accession reflects the successful preparation of Romania and the EPO and highlights that the system is well prepared for further accessions in the future. The transparency provided by the unitary patent dashboard with definitive key data, including patenting rates by country, was praised.
The Special Committee noted the latest developments in the EPO's unitary patent work, the UPC, and updates on cooperation between the two institutions, and expressed a unanimously favorable opinion on the proposed unitary patent budget for 2025, with a forecast annual uptake rate of 27% in 2025 and 29% in 2026.
Finally, the Special Committee supported the early entry into force of the proposed amendments to the Unitary Patent Rules to implement the 14th round of sanctions against Russia.
Follow-up Seminar Held with Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO)
On November 6, 2024, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) held a follow-up seminar in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) for trainees who have completed Malaysian JPO/IPR training.
This seminar, which had the theme of “Patent Opposition Systems” was attended by around 100 participants including staff of MyIPO and those with IP-related positions at universities, research institutes and law firms, etc. The seminar was aimed at deepening participants' understanding of recent developments in the IP policies of both countries, in particular regarding patent opposition systems.
Going forward, the JPO will continue to offer support for the maintenance and improvement of the IP environment in multiple other nations including Malaysia, in order to further an environment in which IP rights can be quickly and smoothly secured and appropriately protected.
Filings for AI-related Inventions
On October 31, 2024, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) reported the results of the 2024 edition of its “Survey on the Status of Applications for AI-related Inventions”.
The number of applications for AI-related inventions has been increasing rapidly since 2014, with about 10,300 applications made in 2022. The number of patent applications in 2022 for AI-related inventions with G06N (AI core technology) as the file index was about 3,000 Although growth has slowed somewhat, it is still on the rise.
In recent years, deep learning, especially “generative AI” such as ChatGPT, has not only been the subject of evaluation in various tasks in academia, but has also attracted social discussion and is expected to have an impact on future AI-related inventions.
Aside from G06N (AI core technology), G06T and G06V (image processing/recognition) are the most common as the main categories of AI-related inventions. The number of main categories grouped under “Other” is also on the increase, indicating that The application of AI technologies is expanding.
The number of applications for AI-related inventions related to Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) has continued to increase since 2014. On the other hand, the number of applications for AI-related inventions related to deep reinforcement learning has remained flat in recent years. Meanwhile, the number of applications for AI-related inventions related to transformers has been on the rise, surpassing the number of patent applications for deep reinforcement learning in 2020.
The number of applications with G06N (AI core technology) granted in Japan, Europe, China, and Korea is on the rise. In particular, China stands out in terms of the number of applications (67,000 in 2021) and is a major destination for applications among the Five Offices.