International Cooperation in association with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

The Japan Patent Office (JPO), in association with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), actively supports human resource development and provides technical cooperation in developing countries, for the purpose of supporting the advancement of Japanese companies through strengthening the protection of IP rights in developing countries. Our cooperation in developing countries through collaboration with each organization is outlined below.

Cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): Funds-in-Trust Japan Industrial Property Global (FIT Japan IP Global)

Japan has been making voluntary contributions to WIPO since 1987 through the Funds-in-Trust Japan Industrial Property Global (FIT Japan IP Global), which was established based on these contributions.

At the time it was established, the geographical areas supported by this fund were limited to the Asia-Pacific region; however, in 2008 Africa also was included as a geographical area. Furthermore, in 2019, the fund’s name was changed to the "Global Fund" so that it could provide support globally without any regional limitations. It has been running under that basis ever since. Over the 35 years since it was established, Japan has contributed an aggregate amount of approximately 9 billion yen that has been used to provide support to more than 100 countries. The Fund has contributed to the development of intellectual property (IP) systems in developing countries through a variety of initiatives over the years, such as holding high-level meetings with various members of countries and regions to promote cooperation in the field of IP, sending experts to develop IP legal systems and operations, holding various workshops, and supporting the digitization of IP Offices. The JPO also focuses on fostering human resources who will play an important role in the development of IP systems.

The Funds-in-Trust Japan IP Global, while fully using the Japan's expertise and experiences in cooperation with developing and least-developed countries in the field of IP, contributes to energizing IP ecosystems in the whole world through supporting WIPO’s activities for the following objectives:

1. To establish a world in which innovations originated in developing and least-developed countries are properly protected as IP and commercialized, through establishing self-sustaining IP ecosystems in respective countries;
2. To form the Global IP network through connecting systems, people, and information around IP of respective countries;
3. To broaden the roles of IP for economic growth and social vibrancy through fostering deepened understanding of IP among experts in other fields and also the general public; and
4. To contribute to the achievement of SDGs through promoting the diffusion of innovative technologies around the globe and implementing activities to solve global issues by using IP.

• Quick video overview of the FIT Japan IP Global (link to WIPO website)

The following provides specific initiatives conducted by the FIT Japan IP Global.

1. Policy Dialogues

High-level officials from the JPO, WIPO, and other IP offices in developing countries gather to exchange their views on IP policies and initiatives and discuss various issues with the aim of deepening cooperation on and improving IP systems in developing countries.

In July 2021, the JPO, in cooperation with the League of Arab States (LAS) and WIPO, held a dialogue in the form of an online meeting to exchange knowledge and experiences in the field of IP between Japan and the Arab region. Under the theme of "IP and New Frontiers Technology," representatives from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, LAS, and Gulf Cooperation Councils (GCCs) made presentations and exchanged views on the ideal role and function of IP offices in a new era.

Intersessional Meeting for the Second Arab-Asian Dialogue on Intellectual Property
Between Japan and Selected Arab Countries

In addition, in March 2022, an online forum on the theme “IP and Innovation – Boosting Business Competitiveness in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)” was held in collaboration with the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union Commission, and WIPO. More than 200 individuals from African countries attended the forum and discussed the role of IP in boosting business competitiveness for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Policy Dialogue: ECOWAS/WIPO Regional web forum on IP and Innovation
(Photos: WIPO)

Furthermore, in April 2022, the "Youth Entrepreneurship Regional Forum" was held online on the theme of the role of IP for youth entrepreneurship in Africa. Japanese young entrepreneurs who received support from the JPO’s IP Acceleration program for Startups (IPAS) participated as speakers and talked about how to utilize IP in terms of entrepreneurship. In addition, the follow-up project that is being conducted following the forum provides young African entrepreneurs with the opportunity to learn about raising awareness on managing IP at startups, and also expanding their businesses and improving their competitiveness through utilizing the IP system.

2. Sending Experts

The FIT Japan IP Global sponsors numerous workshops to help countries accede to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, and the Madrid Protocol (Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks).

As a member country of these treaties, the JPO is also committed to sharing knowledge on procedures and preparations with acceding to the treaties by sending its staff to these workshops as lecturers. The JPO began sending experts to the Asia-Pacific region in 1987 and to Africa in 2009, and has sent approximately 400 experts in total to developing countries by FY 2021.

In March 2022, the Virtual Regional Meeting of Intellectual Property Office Officials Responsible for the Madrid System in Selected Asia and Pacific Countries was held. At the meeting, the practitioners from IP Offices from both member countries and non-member countries in the Asia-Pacific region (about 80 participants from 17 countries) gathered and exchanged views on improving operations on the Madrid system and discussed common issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Three members from the JPO participated as speakers shared their experiences and knowledge in formality and substantive examinations and provided advice for improving operations to better handle the Madrid system in all countries.

Additionally, an online workshop on the Madrid system for the African region was held in February 2022 and an online workshop on the PCT for patent examiners in Bangladesh was held in March 2022 with the support of FIT Japan IP Global.

In order to assist the development of human resources involved with IT in developing countries, the FIT Japan IP Global supports training programs and workshops based on the needs of each country, and also sends JPO members as lecturers.

At the workshop held in Tanzania in August 2019 attended by staff members from the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), and member-state IP offices, WIPO gave a presentation on the preconditions that the offices must meet before they can advance digitizing their office operations. Members from the JPO also participated in the workshop, presenting basic matters that should be completed before IP offices can develop and implement IT systems, as well as talking about their experiences and details of the JPO's various digital systems.

In addition, members from the JPO participated in the "ASEAN Annual Conference on Applications of IT in Industrial Property" which was held in Vietnam in October 2019 with IT staff from each of the 10 ASEAN countries' IP offices. They talked about the JPO's initiatives for developing systems and the future outlook.

3. Human Resource Development

For human resource development in developing countries, the FIT Japan IP Global offers various support programs.

(1) Long-term fellowship program

The JPO has been conducting a long-term fellowship program since 1997 as a part of the human-resource-development programs in Asia. This program offers an opportunity for one staff member every year, who is in charge of technology transfer at a university or science and technology institution in the Asian region, to go to Japan for three months to research Japanese Industrial Property Law and Asian IP law at the Osaka Institute of Technology Graduate School of Intellectual Property. In FY 2021, the face-to-face program was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and instead was conducted as an online course. Fourteen trainees from Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam participated in the program and learned about the IP system and technology transfer in Japan.

(2) Master's degree in Intellectual Property (MIP) Program

The MIP program is one of the human-resource-development programs provided by the WIPO Academy, which is designed to develop future leaders who can forge their respective nations’ IP policies involving the economy, science, and technology. Since 2008 when the FIT Japan IP Global expanded its support to the African region, and up to the present, the FIT Japan IP Global supports the MIP program co-hosted by WIPO, ARIPO, and African University; and the MIP program co-hosted by WIPO, OAPI and University of Yaounde II, by awarding scholarships to about 12 students of each program every year. So far, 234 graduates who have received scholarships from the FIT Japan IP Global play an active role in their respective countries.

Photo of graduates and Japanese Ambassador to Zimbabwe
at the MIP program's graduation ceremony
(Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan)

(3) Youth Support

In June 2021, through the support of the FIT Japan IP Global, the WIPO Japan Office and the WIPO Academy co-hosted a workshop on IP education for youth. Forty-four policy makers and practitioners involved in IP education In Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam participated. The workshop covered a wide range of topics, including the role of IP education in fostering creativity among youth, methodological approaches on teaching IP, and the presentations of inventions by students.

IP4Youth&Teachers Workshop (Photos: WIPO Japan Office)

In addition, FIT Japan IP Global provided support for creating a video clip explaining about “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future”, which is the theme of “World Intellectual Property Day 2022” on April 26. This video clip is available in eight languages on the WIPO website and social media.

• World Intellectual Property Day 2022 video clip on IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future (link to WIPO website)

4. Digitalization Support

With the aim of improving the efficiency and quality of examinations in developing countries, the FIT Japan IP Global also supports the development of IT infrastructure in developing countries.

Specifically, the JPO through the FIT Japan IP Global provides the following support: (1) support for digitizing applications and documents; (2) support for developing IT systems and collecting data by IT systems such as WIPO-IPAS and ASEAN PATENTSCOPE, which are the administrative processing systems of the IP Office of Japan and the ASEAN Intellectual Property Information Portal that enables users to view to gazettes of data at all ASEAN offices at once; (3) support for the development and widespread dissemination of WIPO-CASE, which is a system for sharing patent application and examination information (dossier information); (4) support to enable developing countries to hold IT training courses and workshops to develop human resources in the field of IP. The JPO has been supporting the development of WIPO-CASE since 2013 and ASEAN PATENTSCOPE since 2015.

In FY 2021, the JPO implemented projects to support digitalization in Malawi, Thailand and OAPI, and also project to verify data in Eswatini, Zambia, and OAPI.

In addition, in November 2019, the JPO invited members from the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam to Japan for a training project to develop human resources who can build and use an efficient IT infrastructure in the Viet Na IP Office. Furthermore, as part of the support to established the Intellectual Property Office of Myanmar, three workshops to establish online services were held, and the members of neighboring countries’ IP offices helped in implementing IT systems with members in charge in Myanmar.

Visit by Members of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam to Japan Patent Office

5. Support for Utilizing Intellectual Property

(1) Branding support

Since 2016, the FIT Japan IP Global has been supporting people in developing countries to utilize their IP system as a means to foster local brands. Branding traditional local products in developing countries promotes the development of local industries and helps achieve the SDGs, the goals set by the United Nations. Currently, branding projects are in progress in Kenya, Ghana, Botswana, and Mauritius.

For the Taita Basket branding project in Kenya, the FIT Japan IP Global cooperated with the Kenya Industrial Property Institute to assist in acquiring a collective trademark for traditional baskets woven from sisal hemp by women living in rural areas of Taita Taveta County, Kenya. Based on this project, the FIT Japan IP Global supported establishing an association to be the right’s holder of the registered collective trademark, creating a logo for the collective trademark, drafting rules for the use of the collective trademark, as well as making rules for the use of the collective trademark, such as formulating quality standards for baskets, allowing the use of the trademark to be only for products that meet certain quality standards, and conducing training course for more than 400 basket weavers to ensure that they meet the quality standards. Both association and the collective trademarks that originated form this project are now registered in Kenya.

The FIT Japan IP Global has also been working with companies and intellectual property authorities in Botswana since 2019 to support a project to foster a local brand of traditional Chobe baskets woven from palm leaves. The collective trademark for the Chobe basket is now registered in Botswana.

Taita Basket, Kenya, attached with a registered collective trademark tag

(2) EIE (Enabling Innovation Environment) Project

WIPO is promoting the Enabling Innovation Environment (EIE) project in Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia, aiming to achieve sustainable economic development in these countries by utilizing the IP owned by universities and research institutions. With the aim of commercializing their inventions, these entities have implemented various activities, for example, carrying out industry-academia collaboration on IP by building networks among universities and research institutes in these countries. In line with these activities, the FIT Japan IP Global holds workshops and has experts provide mentoring. This project has made progress in building a framework enabling industry-academia collaboration in each country, and in supporting more 190 technology transfers.

(3) Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC)

The Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) is an organization established to support innovation and technology transfer in developing countries by promoting the use of technical information, science and technical literature, search tools, and databases. Currently, TISCs are in more than 1,100 locations in 80 countries, such as IP offices, universities, research centers, technology parks, and others. etc. They provide users with services such as support to access patent and non-patent databases, support for filing patent applications and preparing patent specifications, and support for commercializing and transferring technology.

The FIT Japan IP Global supports the establishment of regional TISC networks and the improvement in TISC staff’s skills in each region. In March 2022, the following two meetings were held online: the WIPO Virtual Regional Meeting on Developing the ASEAN Regional Technology, and Innovation Support Center (TISC) Network; and the WIPO-ARIPO Virtual Regional Meeting on Developing the Regional Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) Network. At these meetings, representatives from each TISC shared their best practices and knowledge, and further strengthened cooperation to improve TISCs’ functions and services.

Cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

In cooperation with JICA, the JPO sends staff to developing countries, who are experts on IP systems, for the purpose of improving the IP legal systems and fostering human resources.

(1) Support for Indonesia

Since FY 1993,the JPO has been sending staff members to the Directorate General of Intellectual Property of Indonesia to serve as long-term experts, providing support on an in-house basis to improve the local IP system, cooperate on human resource development, and raise awareness and disseminate IP activities. The JPO has sent a patent examiner since May 2021 who help improve the operating procedures of patent examination practices, revise and publish patent examination guidelines, and enhance the capabilities of patent examiners, as this helps develop and improve the local business and investment environment.

Activity of a long-term expert in Indonesia

(2) Support for Vietnam

The “Project for strengthening capacity in industrial property examination in IP Viet Nam” has been conducted since March 2021, with the JPO sending a patent examiner to the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam as long-term experts. They conduct activities such as revising patent examination guidelines, creating documents on quality management of patent examinations, implementing pilot activities, and holding seminars and workshops aimed at enhancing the capabilities and skills of patent examiners.

• Outline of the project (Vietnam) -From JICA website- (link to external website)

Activity of a long-term expert in Vietnam

[Last updated 5 September 2022]

Contact Us

Regional Cooperation Section International Cooperation Division Policy Planning and Coordination Department Japan Patent Office Tel:+81-3-3503-4698 (Direct) FAX：03-3581-0762 E-mail：PA0870@jpo.go.jp