SUMMARY OUTLINE OF THE DESIGN LAW REVISIONS

Effective as of January 1, 1999

1. CLAIMING PRIORITY BASED ON EPC APPLICATIONS

Filings to Japan claiming priority from an EPC application will no longer require submission of EPO priority documentation. This revision applies to applications filed with the JPO on or after January 1, 1999. This revision is a result of the establishment of an information exchange system between the JPO and the EPO.

2. DAMAGE COMPENSATION FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT

a.Up to now, damages have been calculated based on the usual or normal license royalty. Under the revised law, damages will be calculated by multiplying the number of the infringer’s products sold by the amount of profit the patentee should have obtained on each of these sales. This revision has raised the amount of compensatory damages that can be retrieved by patentees.

b.The upper limit on fines levied for patent infringement by companies has been raised from 5 million yen to 150 million yen.

3. PRIOR-FILING STATUS LIMITED

Patent applications and utility model applications that have been abandoned, withdrawn or subjected to a decision of final rejection shall be deemed never to have existed and will lose their prior-filing status against subsequent applications.