Overview of Japanese Patent Trends 2020

I.      2020 Statistics from JPO

II.    Recent Development

I. 2020 Statistics from JPO

The JPO is committed to quick and high quality examination

• Use of outside resources specialized in each technical field for prior art search
• Provide accelerated and super accelerated examination
• Regularly holds quality control and quality assurance processes
• Evaluation by users and outside panel

Application Pendency at JPO

• 14.3 months from Request for Examination (RFE) to Allowance

• 9.5 and 2.5 months from RFE to 1st OA in normal and accelerated examination, respectively.

Application Pendency at major patent offices

First Office Action Pendency from Request for Examination (RFE) in 2018.

• • 4.4 months of EPO only includes Extended European Search Report.
  • 15.6 months of USPTO is pendency from filing.

Pendency periods among major patent offices

Months spent by major patent offices from RFE to final disposition in 2018:

Allowance rates among major patent offices

The allowance rate at the JPO has increased and ranked the highest since 2015.

Allowance rate of appealed cases in JPO

The allowance rate by pre appeal examiners and appeal board examiners high

Calculated by (A+B)/(A+B+C) A= the number of allowances by pre appeal examiners; B=the number of allowances by appeal board examiners; C=the number of rejections by appeal board examiners.

Survival rates in post grant oppositions

Patent survival rates in post grant opposition are high.

Calculated by (B+C)/(A+B+C) A= the number of revoked cases; B=the number of surviving cases; C=the number of withdrawn oppositions.

• 86.5% in 2019

Survival rates in invalidation trials before the JPO

Patent survival rates in invalidation trials before the JPO have been higher than 74% in recent years. In 2019, the patent survival rate was 84.0%.

Calculated by (B+C)/(A+B+C) A= the number of invalidated cases; B=the number of surviving cases; C=the number of withdrawn trials.

Continuing Growth of AI related patent applications

Number of AI related applications surging up to 4727 in 2018

II. Recent Development

Stronger IP protection in Japan

• Clauses for claiming damages has been amended to strengthen intellectual property protection.
• This amendment will be beneficial especially for the fintech industry.

Amendment to the Patent Law concerning calculation of damages (effective April 2020)

• Article 102(1)~(3), regulating the calculation of damages, was amended to strengthen IP protection in Japan.
• The amendment to Article 102(1) enables patentees to claim damages even beyond his/her production capacity.
• Newly added Article 102(4) enables patentees to claim license fee at a higher than usual punitive rate as minimum damages.

MONEY SQUARE vs Foreign Exchange Online cases

• In October 2019, IP High Court ruled that Foreign Exchange Online, one of Japan’s fintech startups, infringes a business related patent of Money Square, another fintech startup. The ruling is in favor of a broader scope of Money Square’s business related invention and is welcome as a landmark decision.

• Money Square filed another lawsuit in July 2020 for infringement of its patent related to the management of financial instruments transactions, claiming damages of 1.19 billion yen, against Foreign Exchange Online.