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Japan

Revision as of 11:33, 7 April 2010 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by 201.116.48.150 (Talk) to last revision by Ciaran)
country-region-todo

Legislation

See Article 69 of the Japanese Patent law, and Article 101, Subparagraph 2 of the Patent Law.

Legislation change in 2000

""Awareness of the value of intellectual property is rapidly rising. But we have yet to see conspicuous achievement in terms of the policy's actual contribution to technological development," said Kozo Oikawa, commissioner of the Japan Patent Office."

And notes:

"Japan's Patent Law had traditionally limited the scope of invention to a "high-level technological concept" created by "utilizing the laws of nature," effectively excluding newly conceived business strategies. Last year, however, the government redefined its guidelines to grant patents on business approaches."

Case law

2005 METI Study Group Interim Report

(sources: TRIPS and Software Patents in Japan, Dr. Karl-Friedrich Lenz, and (in Japanese) the October 2005 METI report, and someone's made an English translation of the summary)

The executive summary discusses how implementing software innovations always depends on using other software ideas, and concludes:

"The following legal measures come to mind for the near future. Make “Rules on Economic Transactions in the Market” that determine in which case exercising patent rights is a misuse of rights. For example, an exercise of patent rights that obstructs communication between software components, where the patent holder restricts transactions between third parties or exercises his patent right in a manner exceedingly contrary to public interest might qualify as “misuse of patent rights”."

(See also: TRIPS)

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links