WORD has reached us from Japan that foreign applications for the registration of patent property rights may now be accepted by the Japanese patent office and processed under the Japanese law. Heretofore, the acceptance of applications for patent rights from persons outside Japan has been prohibited. The new SCAP directive issued to the Japanese government has removed all restrictions on the filing of such applications and permits the Board of Patents and Standards to register patents, utility models, and designs in the names of foreign applicants under provisions of Japanese law and the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. At the same time, a change is being made in censorship regulations to permit sending of patent specifications through the mails. This action will permit foreign applicants to send descriptions of their inventions into Japan in connection with their applications for property protection under the law. For some time there has been a growing ...