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April 17, 2008: Nikkei Net | JPO press release
Newsletter May 2008
The Japan Patent Office announced on 17 April that patent holders will see an overall 12% decrease in annual and application fees for patents. Trademark protection fees will also be decreased by 43%. This amendment in the patent law is going to be implemented from 1st June 2008. This move is targeted to help support small-medium enterprises, for whom the patent annual maintenance fees form a relatively heavy burden.
The reduction focuses mainly on fees required to maintain patent and trademark rights that are 10 years and above. The average fees required to maintain a patent throughout a period of 10 years will be reduced from JPY 490, 000 to JPY 440, 000, and those for 20 years, from JPY 1.68mio to JPY 1.34mio. The required fees for maintaining a trademark throughout a 10-year period will fall from JPY 130, 000 to JPY 70, 000.
April 10, 2008: | Daily Yomiuri Online | Related articles: Registration of the Trademark「青淼」: Daily Yomiuri Online, 18 April 2008 | China Matsusaka Beef Trademark Filed at City's Request: Daily Yomiuri Online, 12 April 2008
According to a recent survey by the Beijing Office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Chinese and Taiwanese firms have submitted applications to Chinese authorities to use Japanese regional brands and register them as their own trademarks in order to push up prices of their goods in their respective domestic markets. Below are summaries of a couple of featured articles:
Registration of the Trademark「青淼」
Aomori prefecture (Japan) has raised objections against an application of the trademark 「青淼」in China, which bears strong resemblance to the Chinese characters of Aomori prefecture「青森」in Japan. They claim that the high degree of similarity between these two words might confuse consumers and bring about an adverse influence to its exports in apples (the Aomori prefecture is famous for the production of premium quality apples).
According to Aomori prefecture, the filed trademark「青淼」is pronounced as “qing miao” in Chinese, which means “clear waters”. Under the engagement of Aomori prefecture, the patent law firm that is in charge with this case discovered this trademark application in March. It was said that the trademark shows a picture of an apple together with the initials “QM” for “Qing Miao”.
April 25, 2008: | The Chemical Daily
According to a recent study by the Japan Patent Office (JPO), Japan has emerged top in the number of patent applications for 5 technology-related categories, such as “technologies to reduce harmful materials in diesel engine”, amongst countries such as America, Europe, China and Korea. This study is done yearly in the third quarter for a number of categories based on themes decided by the Technology Master Plan in order to examine technological trends.
April 12, 2008 | Daily Yomiuri Online
The Kobe research center of pharmaceutical firm Bayer Yakuhin Ltd. has successfully cultivated pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from human cells in spring 2007. This has met with competition from Kyoto University Prof. Shinya Yamanaka’s research team, who claimed they have achieved the results in November 2007. Should Bayer Yakuhin be granted patents rights for the method of producing iPS cells, this might consequently bring adverse effect to Japan’s related medical costs as they are generally higher when a foreign company owns the patent.
April 24, 2008 | Cellular news
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) has granted Swedish handset manufacturer, Neonode patent rights for optical touch screen technology, zForce. This patent is significant as Japan is home to several of the world’s biggest consumer electronics manufacturers. They are often the first to market new inventions in Japan and the Japanese consumers are also the biggest spenders of consumer electronics in the world.
China
April 30, 2008 | Washington post
China, Russia and 10 other nations were targeted by the US government for not adequately protecting US producers, music, movies, computer software and other copyrighted materials against piracy. These named countries were put on a “priority watch list” which means that they are under stricter supervision and it could lead to consequential economic sanctions should the US government decide to lodge a complaint against these countries at the World Trade Organization.
Korea
March 11, 2008 | KoreaNewsWire
Cheonju-city has received patent rights for their innovative “refuse measuring system”, which includes raw refuse, on 11 April 2008.
Although patents for 27 items, such as Korean model houses, Korean paper, cheonju bibimbap and ONN brands have already been issued, this is the first patent unique to Cheonju-city for their revolutionary idea.
This system, as its name suggests, is able to differentiate the charges of rubbish disposed by its weight. Rubbish bins equipped with this special weighing function, the RFID radio wave machine and reader are the 3 objects registered this time.
This invention is significant to the research in disposal of raw refuse as it is able to help reduce the administrative costs involved in levying charges on rubbish. Local authorities are currently using weight-classified refuse bags and tax certificates to collect levy for refuse, but this has resulted in problems such as environmental pollution and caused local residents inconvenience in having to purchase tax certificates.
Not only can the introduction of this new “refuse measuring system” help to beautify the city by doing away with unsightly refuse bags but also save residents the hassle of purchasing tax certificates.
It is hoped that this system could be first implemented in public housing areas and large eateries by July this year.
Varia
April 29, 2008 | State Intellectual Property of the P.R.C.
April 21, 2008 | State Intellectual Property of the P.R.C.
April 15, 2008 | PR Newswire
April 14, 2008 | State Intellectual Property of the P.R.C.
Insights into JAPAN
April 27, 2008 | Daily Yomiuri Online
April 16, 2008 | Daily Yomiuri Online
Tokyo’s population has reached 10% of Japan’s total figure in 2007, the highest record in 28 years. This figure indicates a rapidly increasing trend of overpopulation in Tokyo, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.
Insights into CHINA
Source: Daily Yomiuri Online
The ties between Chinese and Jews have recently resurfaced as a result of China’s diplomatic plans in the Middle East becoming more and more active in recent years. China has been working more closely with Israel and the trading volume between these two countries has doubled in 5 years to reach $5 billion.
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