Intellectual Property Prosecution
For the past two decades, the Firm has been ranking with the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), with voluminous total application filings; patent application filings, originating from the U.S.; and trademark application filings, originating from the U.S. The Firm has also continuously increased the number of design matters it handles year by year. The Firm has filed more than 4,000 patent applications, design applications and trademark filings yearly.
Patent
The IP team has an extensive background and experience relating to prosecution of Intellectual Property matters including filing and prosecution of patent, utility model, design, and trademark applications not only at the JPO but also before various IP offices globally. The Firm’s Intellectual Property services extend beyond filing and prosecution and includes patentability or registrability and landscape analysis, freedom to operate/use searches, drafting and appealing before the JPO Board of Appeals, and drafting and negotiating contracts related to IP rights, among others.
Trademark
The Trademark team can not only assist with registrability analyses and searches, freedom to use analyses, drafting and prosecuting trademark applications at the JPO, the JPO Board of Appeals and WIPO, but they are also adept at negotiating with third-parties to enable the clients’ marks to co-exist with senior marks peacefully and have drafted agreements to reflect the same to ensure clients’ rights are protected during and after trademark prosecution.
Design
The Design arm of the Firm is one of the largest in Japan. The team recognizes the importance of product design and user interface, as it has also prosecuted the portfolio of various clients, while keeping abreast of any new developments in the Japanese Design Law, such as the introduction of new GUI regulations. It has prepared and filed each application directly with the JPO and has assumed responsibility for the Hague design applications before the JPO. The Firm has also ascertained that it overcomes all the rejections issued, with the goal that the highest protection available for each embodiment will be attained to protect the Client’s interests. The Firm’s Design services go beyond mere prosecution and also include transactions and enforcement, as well as validity and infringement opinions and due diligence, further adding value to the Client’s protection.