In recent years, the importance of patents has increased around the world. The number of patent applications in Japan hovers around 300,000 to 350,000 annually, and patent applications are filed in Japan from all over the world.
In order to obtain a patent in Japan, it is necessary to apply and receive registration at the Japan Patent Office. However, the procedure to obtain rights is complex and requires technical and legal expertise.
On the other hand, with globalization, it has become necessary to obtain patents overseas in order to advance into overseas markets and secure an advantage. However, in order to obtain a patent in a foreign country, documents are required in the language specified by each country's laws, and it is also necessary to follow each country's procedures.
In this way, in order to obtain a patent, it is necessary to bring together a variety of specialized knowledge, so many applicants delegate this to an agent.
Our office has an environment that allows us to obtain patents both domestically and internationally, and we are also able to carry out a wide range of services related to post-patent acquisition procedures, licensing, disputes, etc.
Our office is
① We have the specialized knowledge and know-how based on many years of experience necessary to obtain patents,
② Specialists who are familiar with all technical fields work full-time,
③ Because we are a large office, we are able to respond to urgent cases regardless of technical field.
④As we are an international patent office, we are able to communicate accurately with overseas agents through collaboration between staff with advanced language skills and foreign staff.
⑤We work efficiently and quickly by coordinating with each country's support office depending on the case.
We are always striving to provide services that meet your expectations by making constant efforts to improve the quality of specifications and acquire specialized knowledge necessary for patent acquisition procedures.
Director: Patent attorney/Specific infringement litigation agent Mr. Kiyoshi FUKUI (Kiyoshi Fukui)
table of contents
Beginners
The development of science and technology has made our lives much more convenient. For example, you can learn about happenings around the world in real time using the Internet at home, and the spread of mobile phones has made it possible to contact anyone when you need to, even when you are out and about. The Internet, mobile phones, etc. are inventions developed through the accumulation of human wisdom, scholarship, and research.
When we talk about inventions, we often mean inventions in everyday life, but inventions in the legal sense refer to invisible technical ideas. Things that embody this will be sold on the market as inventions.
This technical idea is a type of information, so once the information is leaked, it becomes possible for others to act as if it were their own invention. Furthermore, once an invented product is sold, others can research the product and sell products with the same content, and because the research and development costs for the invention are not spent, the product can be sold at a lower price. It will be possible.
But,If we ignore the act of plagiarizing ideas without permission or imitating other people's products without any effort, no one will make new inventions and the development of science and technology will stagnate.I will do it.
Therefore, a legal system is needed to protect inventions, which are invisible assets, as property rights. As a legal system, there is a law called the Patent Law.Property rights called patent rights protect inventions.To do.
Patent rights arise when a patent application is filed and registered at the Patent Office. If a patent right arisesStop selling to others who imitate your inventionsYou can ask forcompensation for damages sufferedyou can ask for. In this way, patent rights are effective rights for protecting one's own inventions.
Overview of the patent system
Purpose of obtaining a patent
Why obtain a patent? What is the main purpose of obtaining a patent?
First, looking at the purpose of the Patent Act, Article 1 of the Act stipulates that "the purpose is to encourage inventions and thereby contribute to the development of industry by protecting and utilizing inventions." Masu. This is because without a system to protect inventions, the following problems will occur.
- Unlike tangible objects such as chattels, inventions, which are ideas, cannot be possessed or owned visually. Therefore, if there is no system to protect inventions, new inventions created after repeated research could easily be plagiarized by third parties.
- Research and development requires cost and effort, so if inventions can be used without permission, there will be no one to invent them. This hinders industrial development.
Therefore, the Patent Law grants patent rights to those who make new inventions in order to protect their inventions. However, allowing unlimited protection of inventions deprives third parties of the opportunity to utilize the inventions of others.
Therefore, from the perspective of harmonizing the protection and utilization of inventions, the Patent Act provides patent rights protection for a certain period of time to those who make and publish new inventions, while giving third parties the opportunity to utilize the disclosed inventions. By providing this, we decided to promote technological progress and industrial development.
In this way, the ultimate purpose of patent law is to protect and utilize inventions, encourage inventions, and contribute to the development of industry.
Looking at this from the standpoint of inventors and companies, patent rights that protect inventions are exclusive rights and are therefore important tools for pursuing profits in the market. In other words, the first person to invent an invention needs to recover research and development costs, commercialization costs, etc., but if the person who invents the invention cannot eliminate those who follow the first mover from the market without investing a huge amount of development costs, the cost will be sufficient. cannot be recovered.
This is where patent rights, which exclude others from the market and monopolize the implementation of patented inventions, play an important role. In this way, the main purpose of obtaining a patent can be said to be to recover invested capital and pursue profits.
rights subject
The entities that can obtain patent rights are the true inventor and his or her successors. The true inventor is the person who actually took part in the act of creating the invention; mere assistants, financial providers, etc. are not the inventor. A successor is a person who has inherited the right to obtain a patent from an inventor.
Foreigners (those who do not have Japanese nationality):
- 1. If you have an address or residence (or a business office in the case of a corporation) in Japan
- 2. If you are a national of a country that provides national treatment to Japanese nationals or that adopts reciprocity.
- 3. If the treaty provides otherwise.
If any of the following apply, you will be the entity enjoying patent rights.
Inventions under the Patent Act (Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Patent Act)
Inventions under patent law are different from inventive concepts used in everyday life.
Patent law defines an invention as(1) Utilizing natural lawsdid,(2) Technical philosophyof,(3) CreationOut of(4) AltitudeIt stipulates that it refers to something.
- (1) Utilizing natural lawsBecause it is necessary that the law of nature itself (such as the law of universal gravitation), mere mental activities (such as memory techniques), purely academic laws (such as mathematical laws), or artificial arrangements (such as business methods) etc. are not legal inventions.
- (2) Technical philosophyIt needs to be a concrete means to achieve a certain purpose, and it needs to be repeatable and implementable. Skills such as how to throw a folkball, playing techniques, etc. are not inventions under the law.
- (3) CreationTherefore, the mere discovery of something that already existed in nature is not an invention under the law.
- (4) SophisticationThis is to distinguish it from inventions that are subject to utility models.
patent requirements
In order to obtain a patent, the invention must be patentable as stipulated by the Patent Act. Additionally, documents stipulated by the Patent Act must be submitted to the Patent Office for documentary examination. The Patent Act stipulates these requirements, and a substantive examination will be conducted to determine whether the requirements are met.
(1) Industrial applicability (pillar of Article 29, Paragraph 1 of the Patent Act)
It must be possible to implement it as an industry. The industry here refers to industries in a broad sense, including industries that do not involve production, such as the service industry and transportation industry.
(2) Novelty (Article 29, Paragraph 1 of the Patent Act)
No matter how great an invention is subjectively, if it is not objectively novel, it will not satisfy the novelty requirement, which is one of the requirements for a patent. This is because patent rights are granted to protect new inventions instead of disclosing them to the public, so granting exclusive rights to the same technology as is already known is not granting patent rights. This is because it goes against the purpose of doing so.
(3) Inventive step (Article 29, Paragraph 2 of the Patent Act)
Even if an invention has novelty, it does not meet the requirements for inventive step if a person skilled in the art could have easily made the invention based on the prior art. For example, from the publicly known propeller ships and aerial propeller ships, a ship equipped with both a propeller and an aerial propeller would not be recognized as an inventive step because an engineer in the field could easily think of it.
(4) Being the earliest application (first-to-file principle) (Article 39 of the Patent Act)
Even if you complete an invention first, if someone else files an application for the same invention first, that other person's application will be registered as long as it meets the patent requirements.
(5) Not stated in the prior application (Article 29-2 of the Patent Act)
Since the contents of a patent application are made public after a certain period of time has passed from the filing date, earlier applications may not have been published yet at the time of filing. However, even if you do not know this at the time of filing, you may find out after filing that there is an earlier application for an invention with the same content as the invention related to the application. In this case, the application is not the earliest application, nor is it a new invention.
Therefore, in an earlier application published after the application, if the invention related to the application is the same as the invention or device described in the specification etc. originally attached to the earlier application, as a general rule, I have decided that I will not be able to obtain a patent.
(6) Not to violate public order (Article 32 of the Patent Law)
Inventions that violate morals or ethics or that may harm public health cannot be patented.
(7) How to write specifications, etc. (Article 36 of the Patent Act)
In a patent application, the specification, claims, and drawings are required to disclose the technical content of the invention, and also to serve as a title document after the patent is granted. Therefore, the Patent Act stipulates requirements regarding documents such as specifications.
Examination (Article 47 et seq. of the Patent Act)
A patent right does not arise just by completing an invention. In order to obtain a patent, it is necessary to file an application with the Patent Office. After filing an application, by filing a request for substantive examination with the Patent Office within a certain period of time, the Patent Office will begin a written examination. The reason we decided to conduct a written examination was because patent rights are strong monopoly rights, and it is necessary to clarify their content.
The Japan Patent Office examiner will compare the application with the prior art to determine whether there are grounds for refusal of the application related to the invention. Reasons for refusal are stipulated by law, and include violations of novelty and inventive step.
As a result of the examination, if it is determined that there are no grounds for refusal, an administrative action will be taken to grant a patent. If it is determined that there are reasons for refusal, a notice of reasons for refusal will be issued and the applicant will be given an opportunity to submit amendments and written opinions. After considering the written amendments and written opinions, if the reasons for refusal have not been resolved, an administrative disposition called a decision of refusal will be taken. If you are dissatisfied with the decision of refusal, you can request an appeal against the decision of refusal.
Patent rights (Article 68 of the Patent Act)
After the patent is granted, the patent right will be established and registered by paying the patent fee, and the patent right will be issued. The duration of the right is 20 years from the date of application (up to 25 years if an extension of the duration has been registered).
Effect of patent rights
The effect of patent rights can be divided into positive effect and negative effect. The former refers to the effect that allows the patentee to exclusively exploit the patented invention in the course of business, and the latter refers to the effect that excludes others from exploiting it.
Limitations on the effectiveness of patent rights
Even though it is an exclusive right, it is not absolutely unlimited. Since monopoly rights are powerful rights, certain restrictions are placed on them from the perspective of public interest and in line with the legal purpose of industrial development, and there are also restrictions when coordinating rights with others. For example, implementation for testing or research may result in improved inventions, which limits the effectiveness of patent rights.
Furthermore, patent rights do not apply to equipment used on ships, aircraft, etc. that only transit within Japan. The reason for this is that while the degree of patent infringement is minor because the patents will be able to leave the country in a short period of time, an injunction would cause serious disruption to transportation facilities.
Regarding rights adjustment with others, if your patented invention uses another person's patented invention or registered utility model related to an earlier application, or if it conflicts with another person's trademark rights related to an earlier application, it is legal. Limited to use by a licensed licensee.
<Contents within the page>
Patent Support Office Patent search/patent application Exceptions to loss of novelty in each country (grace period) Various procedures and troubleshooting after registration utility model Prices