Japan Patent Office Research Articles

Market-based patent value of green transformation technologies

This paper employs the green technology classification published by the Japan Patent Office to estimate the values of green and non-green innovations. By computing patent values based on stock price reactions to the announcement of patent issuance, this paper finds that, on average, green patents have higher values than non-green patents in the pooled sample. However, results from the matched sample indicate the presence of selection biases.

Measuring science and innovation linkage using text mining of research papers and patent information

In this study, the text information of academic papers published by Japanese authors (about 1.7 million papers) and patents filed with the Japan Patent Office (about 12.3 million patents) since 1991 are used for analyzing the inter-relationship between science and technology. Specifically, a distributed representation vector using the title and abstract of each document is created, then neighboring documents to each are identified using the cosine similarity. A time trend and sector specific linkages within science and technology are identified by using the count of neighbor patents (papers) for each paper (patent). It is found that the science intensity of inventions (the number of neighbor papers for patents) increases over time, particularly for university/PRI patents and university–industry collaboration patents over the 30 years studied. As for university/PRI patents, the institutional reforms for the science sector (government laboratory incorporation in 2001 and national university incorporation in 2004) contributed to the interactions between science and technology. In contrast, the technology intensity of science (the number of neighbor patents by paper) decreases over time. It is also found that the technology intensity of life science papers is rather low, although they have a significant impact on subsequent patents. However, there are some scientific fields which are affected by technological developments, so that the state of science and innovation interactions is heterogeneous across the fields.

Intellectual Property Management: Case Studies of Vietnamese SMEs

Intellectual property is increasingly recognized as key contributor to business success. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, there exists a lack of evidence on how firms are managing their intellectual property strategically. With that being said, this paper aims to provide a systematic analysis of successful intellectual property management practices of Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors redesign Intellectual Creation Cycle by Japan Patent Office, taking into account the unique management scenario among Vietnamese businesses. Then, we demonstrate patent and trademark management of six representative SMEs each in four steps: Creation, Registration, Utilisation and Protection. Data collection is based on in-depth interviews with directors of the selected companies. One of the most important findings is that it highlights collaboration between universities/public research institutions and businesses in an effort to develop high value-added products. Also, from the policy-making perspective, a number of lessons have also been drawn out: first, universities and public research institutions should be promoted to commercialise their research outputs; second, enhancement of finance scheme by the industry plays an important role in the IP commercialisation process. This paper thus provides strategic guidelines for Vietnamese SMEs in corporate IP management. It also proposes some practical insights for policy makers with respect to the promotion of IP among businesses, in particular SMEs for the purpose of economic growth.

Linkage of patent and design right data: Analysis of industrial design activities in companies at the creator level

In addition to technological superiority (functional value), attention to design superiority (semantic value) is increasing as a source of competitiveness in product market. In this research, we have created linked data set of utility patent and design patent information of Japan Patent Office to evaluate the design patent data as a source of understanding design innovation. First, machine learning was performed on a classification model for disambiguating the same person of the inventor/creator using data of patent right and design right applied to the Japanese Patent Office. By interconnecting the inventor's and creator's identifiers estimated by the learned classification model, we identified the design creator who also made the patent invention. Next, an empirical analysis is conducted to characterize the design created by an inventor of utility patent. As a result, about half of design patents are found to be created by the same person who is involved by utility patent. However, the division of labor of designer (a creator of design patent) and engineer (inventor of utility patent) is in progress, particularly for a large firm.

Information constraints and examination quality in patent offices: The effect of initiation lags

Using an exogenous policy change in Japan that accelerated patent examination, we examined how information constraints in a patent office affect patent examination quality in terms of both type I errors (wrong grants) and type II errors (wrong rejections). We found that accelerated examination increased both types of errors, but the increase in the number of wrong grants dominated that in the number of wrong rejections. Furthermore, the effect was stronger for technology sectors wherein the information constraints on examiners were stronger (short technology cycles and early examination requests) before the policy change. Our main results held when using the examination and appeal panel data of the Japan Patent Office (JPO) as well as for the matched sample of the JPO and European Patent Office examinations. In conclusion, a better information gathering system is important for improving the quality of patent examination by patent offices.

The EPO Guidelines They Are a-Changin’

The EPO Guidelines They Are a-Changin’

Istoriya formirovaniya i razvitiya instituta intellektual'noj sobstvennosti v Yaponii

The development of the legal system of any country is impossible without the protection of intellectual property. Japan, as a country with an economic culture of exporting technologies and equipment, pays special attention to this issue. First of all, this is due to the priority direction of the state policy of Japan, a country of advanced technologies and innovations. The whole system of creation and protection of the intellectual property in Japan is regulated by the Copyright Act (Act No. 48 of 1970), Intellectual Property (Law No.122 of 2002), disputes shall be resolved in the Intellectual Property High Court, and the registration procedure takes place in the Japan Patent Office.

Three related topics on the periodic tables of elements

A large variety of periodic tables of the chemical elements have been proposed. It was Mendeleev who proposed a periodic table based on the extensive periodic law and predicted a number of unknown elements at that time. The periodic table currently used worldwide is of a long form pioneered by Werner in 1905. As the first topic, we describe the work of Pfeiffer (Naturwiss. 8:984–991, 1920), who refined Werner’s work and rearranged the rare-earth elements in a separate table below the main table for convenience. Today’s widely used periodic table essentially inherits Pfeiffer’s arrangements. Although long-form tables more precisely represent electron orbitals around a nucleus, they lose some of the features of Mendeleev’s short-form table to express similarities of chemical properties of elements when forming compounds. As the second topic, we compare various three-dimensional (3D) helical periodic tables that resolve some of the shortcomings of the long-form periodic tables in this respect. In particular, we explain how the 3D periodic table “Elementouch” (Maeno in Periodic-table-of-the-elements stationery. Design No. 1149493, Japan Patent Office. https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/d0000, 2001), which combines the s- and p-blocks into one tube, can recover features of Mendeleev’s periodic law. Finally we introduce a topic on the recently proposed nuclear periodic table based on the proton magic numbers (Hagino and Maeno in Found Chem 22:267–273, 2020). Here, the nuclear shell structure leads to a new arrangement of the elements with the proton magic-number nuclei treated like noble-gas atoms. We show that the resulting alignments of the elements in both the atomic and nuclear periodic tables are common over about two thirds of the tables because of a fortuitous coincidence in their magic numbers.

Linkage of Patent and Design Right Data: Analysis of Industrial Design Activities

In addition to technological superiority (functional value), attention to design superiority (semantic value) is increasing as a source of competitiveness in product market. In this research, we have created linked data set of utility patent and design patent information of Japan Patent Office to evaluate the design patent data as a source of understanding design innovation. First, machine learning was performed on a classification model for disambiguating the same person of the inventor / creator using data of patent right and design right applied to the Japanese Patent Office. By interconnecting the inventor's and creator's identifiers estimated by the learned classification model, we identified the design creator who also made the patent invention. Next, an empirical analysis is conducted to characterize the design created by an inventor of utility patent. As a result, about half of design patents are found to be created by the same person who is involved by utility patent. However, the division of labor of designer (a creator of design patent) and engineer (inventor of utility patent) is in progress, particularly for a large firm.

A comparative study of the evolving jurisprudence on standard essential patent licensing

AbstractCourtrooms in several jurisdictions have proven to be legal battleground for developing jurisprudence for disputes on standard essential patent (SEP) licensing. In India, a settlement and a decision defined and reshaped the SEP licensing landscape. These decisions by the Indian adjudicators come in light of the solutions proposed by the Japan Patent Office, decisions taken by the U.K. Courts and official position of the U.S. Department of Justice more recently. In this paper, we seek to analyze the outcomes of SEP disputes in India and make comparison with the ongoing efforts in developing fair, reasonable and non‐discriminatory jurisprudence in Japan, EU, and United States.

Visualization of Potential Technical Solutions by SOM and Co-Clustering and its Extension to Multi-View Situation

In order to support inspiration of potential technical solutions, this paper considers visualization of solving means varied in patent documents through SOM. Non-structured patent document data can be quantified through two different scheme: word level co-occurrence probability vectors and correlation coefficients of the generated co-occurrence probability vectors. Comparing the two SOMs derived with the above schemes is useful for supporting innovation acceleration through extraction of important pairs of related factors in new technology development. In this paper, co-cluster structures are utilized for emphasizing field-related solutions by constructing multiple SOMs after co-clustering. Document × keyword co-occurrence analysis achieves extraction of co-clusters consisting of mutually related pairs in particular fields. Additionally, this paper also considers an extension to a multi-view situation, where each patent is characterized by additional patent classification system of F-term by Japan Patent Office. Through multi-view co-clustering among documents × keywords × F-terms, theme field-related knowledge is demonstrated to be extracted.

Building supplier innovation triads

PurposeThe past decade has seen substantial changes in how organizational leaders work with external stakeholders to improve innovation performance. As leaders have encouraged the extensive involvement of suppliers and customers into the innovation process this has led to the formation of supplier innovation triads that are often governed by a portfolio of strategic alliances. The purpose of this paper is to explore how leaders’ inter-firm relationships and strategic alliances influence the development of supplier innovation triads.Design/methodology/approachThe sample of firms in the Toyota supplier association is constructed from multiple data sets, including the Japan Patent Office, BoardEx and S&PCapitalIQ. The authors test the hypotheses using multivariate techniques, moderation analysis and endogeneity tests.FindingsThe results indicate that leadership relationships to Toyota and its suppliers have a positive effect on the formation of supplier innovation triads. The authors find that firm–external leadership relationships and alliance partner diversity have differential moderating effects on how customer and supplier leadership relationships could be used to build supplier innovation triads.Research limitations/implicationsThe results focus on the firms within the Toyota supplier association, and this limits the paper’s generalizability. Although patent data provide a detailed information resource, it do not capture all collaborations.Originality/valueThe authors expand the leadership literature by undertaking one of the first studies of inter-firm leadership relationships and their differential effects on innovation triads. The authors contribute to the literature by exploring the antecedents and moderating factors that influence buyer–supplier–supplier triads within an innovation setting.

A comparative analysis of the Australian Patent Office's examination of biotechnology reach-through patent claims

In an earlier study we analysed how the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office, the European Patent Office and the Japan Patent Office (jointly referred to as the 'Trilateral Offices' or TOs) assessed reach-through patent claims in biotechnology, under the requirements of 'utility', 'written description' and 'enablement' (as they are referred to in the US). We found that any claim that was a reach-through claim was assessed to be invalid by the TOs, and therefore filtered out from grant. This study analyses how the same claims from the TOs' study are assessed by the Australian Patent Office (APO), under the equivalent Australian requirements of 'manner of manufacture and description of use', 'clarity, succinctness and fair basis', and 'full description and best method'. We find that under Australian practice not all types of reach-through claims are filtered out from grant of a patent. This suggests that one or other of the patent offices is applying the wrong standard in examination of these claims. In our view, the examination standard applied by the APO is too lenient. The Australian legislation should be reformed by adopting patentability requirements that mirror the utility, written description and enablement requirements of the TOs.

Intellectual Property in the Field of Regenerative Medicine in Japan

PurposeAlthough most pharmaceutical companies and bio-ventures have not yet created a practical business model or a credible exit thus far, most are expecting potential new business to be derived from regenerative medicine. This article discusses and proposes some ideas regarding a patent strategy for regenerative medicine. MethodsPubMed literature searches were conducted to identify recent reports relevant to regenerative medicine. Information regarding patents and patent applications were obtained from the database service of the Japan Platform for Patent Information on the website of the National Center for Industrial Property Information and Training at https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/web/all/top/BTmTopEnglishPage and the Japan Patent Office at https://www.jpo.go.jp/index.htm. FindingsThe infrastructure of regenerative medicine in Japan is still maturing. Patent protection is important in regenerative medicine considering its special characteristics. ImplicationsBased on the understanding of the special characteristics of regenerative medicine, this article discusses and proposes some ideas regarding a patent strategy for the field, which is different from that of a typical patent strategy as in the case of a small-molecule drug.

Comments Submitted to Japan Patent Office on Guide to Licensing Negotiations Involving Standard Essential Patents

These comments were submitted to the Japan Patent Office (JPO) in response to its request for comments on its Guide to Licensing Negotiations Involving Standard Essential Patents (Draft Mar. 9, 2018). These comments relate primarily to: (1) assertion of SEPs by Patent Assertion Entities, (2) confidentiality of information in SEP negotiations, (3) Bottom-up royalty calculations, and (4) exclusivity.

The Japan Patent Office (JPO) Guide to Licensing Negotiations Involving Standard Essential Patents, Comment of the Global Antitrust Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

The GAI submitted comments in response to a public consultation by the Japan Patent Office (JPO) regarding its Draft Guide for SEP (standard-essential patent) Licensing Negotiations. The GAI comments encouraged the JPO to acknowledge the platform characteristics of standard-setting organizations (“SSOs”), which link technology innovators directly with technology implementers, and to recognize the key role of SSOs in determining how patents necessary to the provision of standardized products and services should be licensed. The comment also asked the JPO to accept that substantial flexibility is necessary for SSOs and parties engaged in SEP licensing, in light of the wide variation in technologies, standards, and the competitive conditions prevailing in affected markets.

Comment of the Global Antitrust Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, on the Japan Patent Office's Tentative Guidelines on Licensing Negotiations Involving SEPs

This comment is submitted in response to the Japan Patent Office's request for comments on its Guidelines for Licensing Negotiations Involving Standard Essential Patents. The Global Antitrust Institute's Competition Advocacy Program provides a wide-range of recommendations to facilitate adoption of economically sound competition policy, including how to analyze conduct involving standard essential patents.

Ontology-based GFML agent for patent technology requirement evaluation and recommendation

Patent technology requirement evaluation and recommendation are critical for patent strategy, patent management, and patent usage in an organization. This paper proposes a patent technology evaluation and recommendation agent based on a soft-computing approach to enhance patent expansibility and technology transfer. First, we investigate the relationship between patent technology and patent owners, such as academic institutes or organizations, and integrate the collected patent data with the characteristics of organizations to establish a popular patent ontology for general academic institutes or organizations. Then, the patent’s suitability for a specific organization is determined based on concepts extracted using Chinese Knowledge Information Processing. Next, we refer to the Japan Patent Office evaluation index and intellectual property quotient to describe the knowledge base and rule base of the patent quality evaluation agent by using fuzzy markup language (FML). A comprehensive patent quality evaluation mechanism is implemented, and the genetic algorithm is adopted to improve the performance of the proposed agent. Additionally, the patent requirement level evaluation mechanism infers the patent requirement level according to the basic information of an organization. Finally, we present a novel FML-based patent requirement recommendation agent to recommend a patent for an organization by considering the suitability of the patent technology for such an organization, the results of the comprehensive patent quality evaluation process, and the results of the evaluation of the demander’s patent requirements. According to the results, the proposed agent is feasible for patent recommendation. In the future, we will combine an intelligent robot with the GFML agent to assist humans or organizations in recommending an appropriate patent.

From “Japanese Studies” to “International Japanese Studies” from Japan

“Japanese Studies” has become a word used ordinarily throughout the world, I think the term “International Japanese Studies” is a new wording created by the Hosei University. To prove this, the founders of the institution applied to Japan Patent Office and registered the name “Research Center for International Japanese Studies” as a trademark. Therefore in Japan, the establishment of an institution under the title of “Research Center for International Japanese Studies” had lawfully become the exclusive right of Hosei University. Here, I will discuss the meaning of this new field “International Japanese Studies” and try to summarize our activities and their results.

Key fuel cell startup patent approved for myFC in Japan

Swedish fuel cell developer myFC has been awarded another key patent by the Japan Patent Office. The patent covers an important section of the automatic control and self-regulation in the ‘open-end’ solution, which means that the PEM fuel cell in myFC's technique can operate in the startup phase before the cell has gained enough hydrogen.