On May 14, 2014, the official adoption was announced of an act that includes amendments to (1) the Patent Law, as previewed in the January/February issue of WIPR; (2) the Design Law, as previewed in the March/April issue; and (3) the Trademark Law, as previewed in the May/June issue.
The amendment to the Trademark Law came into effect on August 1, 2014, and the amendments to the Patent Law and the Design Law will come into effect within a year of the announcement of the act, although the date for each has not yet been decided. The detailed changes to these laws are as follows.
Post-grant review
Under the new review system, any party may file an opposition to the grant of a patent by requesting, within six months of the issue of the patent publication, that the Japan Patent Office (JPO) appeal examiners review the granted patent. If, in response to such a request, the patent holder in turn requests a correction of the patent, the opposition party may in turn submit an opinion in response.
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design law; trademark; patents
