Welcome to Japan Patent Office (Text Version)

Introduction

Welcome to Japan Patent Office! I’m Susumu Iwasaki, Director-General of the Patent Examination Department specializing in chemistry, life science and material science.
Today, I’d like to introduce our unique services available to you.
In the field of medicines and medical equipment, the commercializing environment in Japan has greatly changed in the last decade.
I’d like to take one example.
Japan’s regulatory authorities have added the special measures so that business operators can quickly obtain approval for manufacture and sale of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
I am convinced that this measure will lower the barrier to Japanese market.
Also, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and the JETRO have enhanced the initiatives for those who wish to expand business in Japan, such as “Invest Japan.”
The JPO, one of the sub-organizations of METI, has also upgraded our services to respond to your new needs.
The JPO, the world-leading patent granting authority, is proud to offer the world’s fastest and highest-quality patent examination
Today, I’d like to explain three major services.

Accelerated examination

The first service is “the Accelerated Examination”.
The mechanism of this service is quite simple: upon your request for it, we examine your application in a shorter period than normal examination for free of charge.
At this moment, our normal examination takes only 14.1 months on average from “Request for Examination” to final decision. Actually 14.1 months for the final decision is one of the shortest periods among the patenting authorities all over the world.
Our Accelerated Examination reduces this period to as short as 5.3 months.
Moreover, “the Super-Accelerated Examination”, the condition of which is suitable for startups, further reduces this period to only 2.5 months.
For efficient examination, we provide interviews without commission, and you can meet your examiner.
Interviews are also available online at your office, even in the US.
I believe that our speedy and high-quality examination is a powerful tool for deciding your investment.

Patent Prosecution Highway

Secondly I have to introduce the Patent Prosecution Highway called PPH.
This PPH, as you might know, is an IP Offices’ cooperation scheme initiated by the JPO and has now become an international standard as a “highway” for users who need patents globally.
More precisely, when your application becomes patentable in one country, it becomes eligible for accelerated examination in other countries upon your request.
Let me show one example.
You can file a PCT international application in English to the USPTO and designate the JPO as the International Searching Authority.
In this case, the JPO will conduct examination by searching not only Japanese and English patent literature but also Chinese and Korean patent literature.
And if you make a PPH request to another IP Office by submitting this International Search Report, that IP Office will examine your application faster and you can get a patent faster with much higher granting rate.
The JPO has the largest PPH network with many partner IP Offices in the world.
I believe that the PPH examination by the JPO will serve as your gateway to the other countries, especially Asian countries, and help you build a global IP portfolio.

Examination Guidelines

Lastly I’d like to touch upon our examination guidelines for patent examination.
To ensure fair and transparent examination, the firm examination guideline is necessary.
The JPO provides this guideline common in all technical fields.
Of course, it is translated in English, available through the JPO’s website.
The guideline includes sections specialized for biological and medicinal inventions, that are kept updated in line with the latest pharmaceutical technology and biotechnology.
Upon this guideline, we grant patents to the existing medicines that claim outstanding effects on new target diseases, or on original target diseases by different dosage or administration, specifying them as medicines for a new use.
Recent examples of such “use inventions” include “food for lowering blood pressure” and “food for preventing gum disease” which have been developed as R&D for functional food has intensified.
The guideline also contains many case examples clarifying examination standards.
I am pleased to hear your comments if you have a chance to see this guideline.

Epilogue

Besides three measures I explained, we offer many other services that will provide new values for you.
Please feel free to ask any questions about our services and let us know your needs and expectations at our booth.
Thank you for your kind attention.