Managing IP’s Japanese Buyers’ Guide 2023 provides a guide to the hot topics, recent legal practice, and significant legislative developments involving intellectual property (IP) for Japanese organisations that have an interest in doing business around Asia. The guide is complemented by firm and author profiles from leading firms in the region, and IP Stars patent rankings for several jurisdictions.
The guide begins in India, with Remfry & Sagar explaining how the country’s legislature and judiciary have addressed the issue of the protection of computer-related inventions. The buzz around ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools has raised more questions in this burgeoning area and the article considers recent case law in tracking the response of the Indian authorities.
Staying in India, Anand and Anand focuses on the potentially powerful weapon of voluntary and mandatory divisional patent applications in the arsenal of patent applicants. In considering recent cases that have addressed this area, the author explains how a simple punctuation mark in statutes can have a significant impact.
FirstLaw PC’s article draws regional attention to South Korea’s recent administrative measures that have been designed to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights. The introduction of punitive damages, the facilitation of proactive criminal investigations for patent infringement, and an expansion of the Special Judicial Police’s powers are among the initiatives.
A landmark ruling in Thailand on trademark non-use cancellation involving a Japanese beauty and healthcare company is cited by Satyapon & Partners as demonstrating that courts will not allow parties to ‘sit on’ trademarks with no proof of use and no intention to use. The decision marks a long-awaited departure from a traditionally conservative approach to the subject.
Finally, Liu Shen & Associates reviews the history of China’s Patent Law as it pertains to inventions developed in China and confidentiality examinations, before discussing best practices for filing patent applications in the region.
New legislative landmarks are being established in a rapidly developing IP landscape. Japanese businesses with IP interests in other Asian nations would do well to take note.
Click here to read Managing IP’s Japanese Buyers’ Guide 2023.
