Episode 19

A request for examination of a patent application can be made within three years from the filing date (Patent Law, Article 48-3, Paragraph 1), and if no request for examination is made within that period, the patent application is deemed to be withdrawn (Patent Law, Article 4, Paragraph 4).
When one year and six months have passed since the filing date, the patent application is published (Patent Law, Article 64, Paragraph 1), so even if an application with the same content as the withdrawn patent application is filed, it will fall under Article 29, Paragraph 1 (novelty) of the same law and will be rejected (Patent Law, Article 49, Paragraph 2).
The examination request rate for patent applications is 74.8% (2020) (https://www.jpo.go.jp/resources/report/nenji/2024/document/index/020202.pdf). In other words, one in four patent applications will not be granted rights, and will only have the effect of excluding later applications (Patent Law, Article 29, Paragraph 1 or Article 29, Paragraph 2) after the application is published.
Even if it is undecided at the time of filing whether or not to request examination, and the need to obtain rights arises three years after filing, the opportunity to obtain rights has already been lost.
In contrast, since utility models are registered without a substantive examination (Utility Model Act, Article 14, Paragraph 2), the right cannot be exercised until a utility model technical evaluation report has been presented and a warning has been issued (Utility Model Act, Article 29-2). A request for a utility model technical evaluation can be made even after the utility model right has expired (Utility Model Act, Article 12, Paragraph 2).
A utility model right holder can file a patent application based on the utility model registration within three years from the date of filing the utility model registration (Patent Act, Article 46-2, Paragraph 1).
In light of the above, if it is undecided at the time of filing whether or not to request examination, if you file a utility model registration application for the time being, and if the need to obtain rights arises within three years from the date of filing, you can file a patent application based on the utility model registration, and if not, maintain the utility model registration, then you can request a utility model technical evaluation and exercise your rights even if the need to obtain rights arises three years after filing.
By utilizing the patent application system based on utility model registration, you can reduce the costs of filing and obtaining rights, while also being able to obtain rights for the contents of your application as necessary.