A patent office (patent attorney’s office) primarily provides representation services related to the establishment and registration of industrial property rights (patent rights, utility model rights, design rights, trademark rights) with the Patent Office.
Industrial property rights are property rights that arise through registration at the Patent Office (Article 66, Paragraph 1 of the Patent Law, Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Utility Model Law, Article 20, Paragraph 1 of the Design Law, Article 18, Paragraph 1 of the Trademark Law). Intellectual property rights, as they are called, are very different in nature from real rights stipulated in the Civil Code (Articles 175 and 176 of the Civil Code).
Therefore, if you run into trouble with a competitor, it will take a lot of time and money to resolve it, and in some cases, you may even lose social credibility.
In addition to acquiring industrial property rights, our firm focuses on providing advice from a legal perspective in order to prevent problems with competitors and lead businesses to success.
(For patent rights, see “Technical scope of patented inventions and their interpretation” in [Reference materials])
An example is the legal protection of software (computer programs).
The program source code is protected by copyright law (Article 10, Paragraph 1, Item 9 of the Copyright Law).
Program algorithms are protected by patent law (Patent Law Article 2, Paragraph 3, Item 1, Article 2, Paragraph 4).
(See “Software Examination Standards, etc.” in [Reference Materials])
Images displayed by programs are protected by the Design Act (Design Act Article 2, Paragraph 1, Article 2, Paragraph 2, Item 3).
Trademarks displayed in images are protected by the Trademark Law (Article 2, Section 3, Item 7 of the Trademark Law).
The Unfair Competition Prevention Act protects against acts of unfair competition related to programs (Unfair Competition Prevention Act, Article 2, Paragraph 1, Items 17, 18, and 19, and Article 2, Paragraphs 8, 9, 10, and 11).
We believe that there are some customers who are feeling anxious or dissatisfied with the patent office they currently work with(Refer to episodes 1 to 3 of “One Thousand and One Nights”) . Our firm provides second opinions and mid-career appointments for such clients. If you have filed an application for a patent, design, or trademark, but unfortunately receive a decision of refusal, we will represent you in the appeal against the decision of refusal(Refer to episode 10 of “One Thousand and One Nights”) . Please feel free to contact us.