The 9^th Public Meeting with Japan Patent Office Examiners

Abstract

The 9^th public meeting was held for the examiner of Japan Patent Office to explain recent developments of Japan patent policies and to hear experts' opinions of intellectual property departments of paper companies. The Patent Law has been revised, and it has become acceptable for employees and companies to discuss and decide on fair rewards for inventions beforehand. For the company, deciding on rational rewards through consultation means avoiding the management risk of being hit later with a huge claim by an in-house inventor. The Japan Supreme Court has given a new and unique ruling on the interpretation of product-by-process (PBP) claims. The Supreme Court held that for an invention of a product, even if a process to manufacture the product is stated in the claims, the technical scope of the invention and the gist of the invention should be determined and recognized as covering products that are identical in structure and feature to the products manufactured through the process described in a patent. The Supreme Court adopted the product identity theory.