1. Legal consultation and documentation of contracts and other documents required for filing patent 
2. Perform negotiations on contractual terms and conditions of patent rights
3. Start litigation proceedings when violation of patent rights arises
4. Perform investigation of the Patent Agency

A patent right is an exclusive right that you can enjoy, and it is the right to dominantly use for inventions that are granted patent rights (patented inventions) in the course of trade. Patent rights guarantees that exclusive use of inventions that satisfies requirements, such as novelty, inventive step, utility possibilities in industrial purposes. In case of violation, by filing following lawsuits, your patent rights are reassured;-

1. litigation to demand for injunction 
2. litigation to claim for damage
3. litigation to demand for measures for confidence recovery
4. litigation to claim for unjust enrichment

Patent rights are granted and ensured in each country; thus, no legal effect in other countries. In order for yo to exclusively sell products, protected by Japanese patent rights, in other countries or to enter into licensing contact with overseas branches/subsidiaries,  you must file a patent application in where you want to do the business.

To file a patent application overseas, you should;

(1) file applications in each country, or

(2) file applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

In case of (1), if you file applications in several foreign countries within one year from the date of first application in overseas country (the “First Application Date”) in accordance with the Paris Convention in relation to protection of industrial property rights, the First Application Date will be applied to the other countries as the date of application.

On the other hand, in case of (2), if you file an application to the Japanese Patent Agency, it has a same effect as filing to all member countries of the PCT. This purpose is to resolve delays in examinations due to duplicated examinations and to relief liabilities of applicants and patent agencies in each country.

1. Legal consultations and documentations of contracts or other documents relating to trademark rights
2. Perform negotiations on contracts of trademark rights
3. Start litigation processes on violation of trademark rights
4. Start proceedings of examinations and judgments of the Patent Agency in relation to trademark rights

A trademark is a mark used by business operators to distinct their products/services from others. Applications of registrations are filed for designed products/services using trademarks.

Trademarks subject to registrations are characters, graphics, marks, solid figures or these combinations or the combination with tints. Since solid figures became subjected by the amendment of the law in 1996, for example, dolls of Mr. Colonel Sanders of KFC, Peko-chan dolls of FUJIYA and the statue of Mr. Shigenobu Okuma of the Waseda University of Japan are registered as trademark in Japan.

The trade mark lasts 10 years, and an application for renewal is also available. However, if the trademarks are not in use for more than 3 years, it may be annulled by examinations.

The trademark rights system functions to keep credibility of business and corporations to protect interests of consumers. Once trademark is registered, you have the exclusive right to use the trademark on the designated commercial products/services and the prohibitive right to prohibit others to use similar trademarks to similar commercial products/services are also granted.

There are exclusive rights and prohibitive rights when it comes to trademark. Therefore, the following acts fall into violation of  trademark rights;-

1. acts or preparatory act to use others’ registered trademarks to designated commercial products/services without legitimate reasons or consent.
2. acts or preparatory act  to use others’ registered trademarks within the extent of similarity without legitimate reasons or contest.
3. acts or preparatory act to use Registered Protective Mark.

Against these violating acts, trademark rights system can offer you the following options: 1. litigation to demand for injunction, 2. litigation to claim for damage, and 3. litigation to demand  for unjust enrichment;-

1. litigation to demand for Injunction is to demand violators to terminate or prevent further damage. Disposal of products/services along with facilities or equipment used for the products/services can be demanded.
2. litigation to claim for damage is to claim for a compensation of monetary damages caused by violation of trademark rights which is prescribed in a special rule of damage claim under the Civil Law, provisions of presumption of damage amounts and presumption of negligence.
3. litigation to demand  for unjust enrichment is a useful proceeding where you can ask for compensation for any profits the violator may have gained over the course of the act of violating the trademark. You do not have to show the intention or negligence of the violator. A violator may be charged and face up to 10 years imprisonment or fine of JPY 10,000,000.

Trademark is granted and ensured in each country; thus, no legal effect in other countries. In order for yo to exclusively use trademark in other countries ,  you must file an application in where you want to do the business. 

The Madrid Protocol established (including Japan) in 1999 allows to obtain trademark rights in several countries with one application without separate applications in Seventy-four countries including U.K., Germany and France (as of August 2007 including potential countries). By this protocol, the application costs has been dramatically cut.

1. Legal consultation and preparation of contracts / other documents relating to the utility model rights
2. Perform negotiations on contracts of the utility model rights
3. Start litigation proceedings on violation of the utility model rights
4. Support and advice in relation to the utility model rights
5. Perform negotiation and start other proceedings in relation to the utility model rights

Utility model rights is a type of intellectual property rights and an exclusive right to dominantly use devices registered as utility models in the course of trade. “Devices” means creation of technical ideas using natural laws as well as inventions under protection the Patent Act. However, devices under protection as utility model rights are limited to figures, structure or their combinations of the products. Adverseness of creation is not required which is different from inventions under the Patent Act. Because no-examination policy is adopted (different from patent rights), once an application is filed, it will be registered as utility model rights, excluding the cases dismissed by no description of requirements.

The holders of utility model rights are able to setup others exclusive licenses or grant ordinary licenses as well as holding rights to exclusively use registered utility models in the course of trade. The period of rights last 10 years from the date of application.

In order for holders of utility model rights to avoid violation of the rights by other, an application for issuance of evaluation documents of utility models have to be firstly filed with examiners of the Patent Office, and give formal warning to potential violators with the issuance of evaluation documents of utility models. Without these, any dispute/claim will be dismissed.

Once the evaluation documents are filed and the formal warning is given to potential violators, you are now able to start following litigation proceedings;-

1. litigation of injunction demand  is to demand violators to terminate or prevent further damage. Disposal of products/services along with facilities or equipment used for the products/services can be demanded.
2. litigation of claim for damage is to claim for a compensation of monetary damages caused by violation of Utility Model Rights which is prescribed in a special rule of damage claim under the Civil Law, provisions of presumption of damage amounts and presumption of negligence.
3. litigation of demand of measures for confidence recovery is to demand formal apologies by means of, for instance, advertisements or newspapers to recover confidence or reputation of patent products harmed and stigmatized as inferiority or unsafe. 
4. litigation of demand of claim for unjust enrichment is a useful proceeding where you can ask for compensation for any profits the violator may have gained over the course of the act of violating Utility Model Rights. You do not have to show the intention or negligence of the violator. A violator may be charged and face up to 5 years imprisonment or fine of JPY 5,000,000.

1. Legal consultation and preparation of contracts or other documents relating to copyrights
2. Perform negotiations on contractual terms and conditions of copyrights
3. Pursue litigation on violation of copyrights
4. Provide legal support and advice on copyrights
5. Perform negotiation and other proceedings in relation to copyrights
6. Consultation and Litigation on copyrights of computer programs 
7. Consultation and Litigation on copyrights of software

A Copyright is a right to exclusively use works or products protected by copyright and gain profits or interests made out of the usage.

Copyright works/products mean it is expressing thoughts or emotions in creative methods and in the extent of creative writing, academic works, art or music. For example, novels, dramas, lucubration, lectures and other language writing works, music works, dance, pantomime works, art works, architectural works, graphic works, film works, photograph works, program works, etc. are eligible to be protected under the Copyright Act. As a copyright holder, you are guaranteed the Rights to make a work public, right to determine the indication of an author’s name and rights to maintain integrity as author’s moral right.

Copyrights are granted upon creation of work/product, and no examination (as opposed to patent rights) is required.

The period of copyright starts from the time of creation of work/product and lasts for 50 years after the death of authors.

Authors have “author’s moral rights” and “works property rights”.

In “author’s moral rights”, there are;-

A “works property right” is a set of divisible rights that include reproduction right, right of performance, right of public transmission, right of recitation, right of exhibition, distribution right, transfer rights, right of rental, translation/adaptation and original authors’ right in relation to use of secondary works, etc. The right is intended to prevent potential violators from abusing / using the work/product protected by the copyright, and if it is violated without the author’s consent, the right will provide necessary grounds for making a claim for a compensation 

if any violations of copyright happen, you may pursue the following litigation;-

1. litigation to demand for injunction is to demand violators to terminate or prevent further damage. Disposal of products/services along with facilities or equipment used for the products/services can be demanded.
2. litigation to claim for damage is to claim for a compensation of monetary damages caused by violation of which is prescribed in a special rule of damage claim under the Civil Law, provisions of presumption of damage amounts and presumption of negligence.
3. litigation to demand for unjust enrichment is a useful proceeding where you can ask for compensation for any profits the violator may have gained over the course of the act of violating the Copyrights. 
4. litigation to demand for measures to restore honors is to demand formal apologies by the means of advertisements or newspapers. in order to recover integrity or reputation of the author due to violation of the Copyright. A violator may be charged and face up to10 years imprisonment or fine of JPY 10,000,000.

Under the Patent Act of Japan, following works/products are protected;-

1. works/products originally issued in Japan, but an author is a foreigner,
2. works/products originally created by a person who reside in countries whose allies of the Berne Convention, and
3. works/products originally created by a person who reside in countries whose allies of the Universal Copyright Convention.

The Berne Convention is a treaty allied by most of the countries in the world. Japan took part in the convention in 1899. Under this treaty, any particular means to establish copyrights are not required, and it is characterized by national treatment protecting foreigners’ works equal to its citizens and protecting works created before execution of the treaty in principal.

The Universal Copyright Convention is a treaty established for bridging with countries in North and South Americas not allied with the Berne Convention, in which Japan joined in 1956. This treaty is characterized by national treatment, non-retroactivity and indication of © and protects even works created in allied countries of no-method principal as they are registered in allied countries of method principal if they appropriately indicate © marks, authors’ names and date of publication

1. Legal consultations and preparation of contracts or other documents relating to design rights
2. Perform negotiations on contractual terms and conditions of design rights
3. Pursue litigation of design rights
4. Pursue litigation to demand for injunction
5. Pursue litigation to claim for damage

Design means figure of products, patterns/colors, or these combinations and objects rousing a sense of beauty through a visual sense, and a design right is an exclusive rights to  dominantly use designs registered as utility models in the course of trade.

Requisites for registration are as follows

Design that has satisfied these requirements are allowed to be registered as establishment of design rights and payment of registration fee, and a design bulletin is issued.

The period of the design right lasts 20 years at most from the date of registration (as for applications before March 31, 2007, it is 15 years at the longest from the date of registration).

  You can pursue following litigation;-

1. litigation to demand for injunction  is a demand that any violator must halt or prevent from violating patent rights. Disposal of objects composing violating acts or scrapping of facilities can be demanded.
2. litigation to claim for damage is a claim for monetary compensation for damage caused by the violation of the design rights as prescribed in a special rule of damage claim under the Civil Law, provisions of presumption of damage amounts and presumption of negligence.
3. litigation to demand for measures for confidence recovery is to demand formal apologies by means of, for instance, advertisements or newspapers to recover confidence or reputation of work/product harmed and stigmatized as inferiority or unsafe. 
4. litigation to claim for unjust enrichment is a useful proceeding where you can ask for compensation for any profits the violator may have gained over the course of the act of the violating the design right. You do not have to show the intention or negligence of the violator. A violator may be charged and face up to 10 years imprisonment or fine of JPY 10,000,000.

Legal consultations and preparation of contracts or other documents relating to domestic/international license contracts, and legal consultations and representations of other violation of intellectual property rights are available.