JURISDICTION REPORT: JAPAN
PATENT APPLICATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS IN JAPAN
Ryo Maruyama Kyosei International Patent Office
On June 29, 2012, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) published its Annual Report 2012. Set forth below is an outline of the annual report’s data regarding patent applications and prosecutions in Japan.
Te number of patent applications received by the JPO in 2011 was about 348,000 (–0.6 percent from the previous year). Te number of applications submitted by residents in Japan was about 288,000 (–0.9 percent from the previous year), and the number submitted by foreign residents was about 55,000 (+0.9 percent over the previous year). Applications submitted by foreign residents in Japan accounted for 16 percent (+0.8 percent to the previous year) of the total submitted by foreigners.
Te number of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications received by the JPO as an international receiving office reached 37,000 in 2011, an increase of 20.5 percent over the previous year, continuing the trend of recent years.
Although the number of requests for a substantive examination was 264,000 in 2011, the number of first office actions issued was 364,000, which is almost the same as the previous year. Te number of the latter considerably exceeded that of the former, showing a continuation of the trend of recent years. As a result, the number of applications for which a first office action has not yet been issued (ie, the backlog of applications) has decreased to 448,000, and the period between the JPO’s receipt of an application and its issuance of a first office action has been shortened to 25.9 months.
According to New Problems to be Solved and Actions to be Taken for a National Commitment to Intellectual Property, issued by the JPO on June 25, 2012, the period between its receipt of an application and issuing a first office action was further shortened to 22.2 months as of the end of March 2012. Tat document also stated that the JPO’s long-term goal of shortening the period to 11 months by the end of 2013 will be achieved.
Te number of patents granted in 2011 was about 200,000, a 7 percent increase over the previous year. Te percentage of applications approved for a patent also increased, to 60.5 percent in 2011, a 5.5 percent increase over the previous year.
The percentage of applications approved for a patent at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) was 49.5 percent for the year ending May 31, 2012.
The success rate in appeals against final rejections of applications was 54 percent, a 2 percent increase over the previous year.
Ryo Maruyama is a Japanese patent attorney and vice president of Kyosei International Patent Office. He can be contacted at:
info@kyosei.or.jp
www.worldipreview.com World Intellectual Property Review September/October 2012 105
“THE NUMBER OF PATENT COOPERATION TREATY (PCT) APPLICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE JPO AS AN INTERNATIONAL RECEIVING OFFICE REACHED 37,000 IN 2011, AN INCREASE OF 20.5 PERCENT OVER THE PREVIOUS YEAR.”
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