From 1968 until 2005, Japan filed the highest number of patent applications in the world and still ranks third in the world today. There are also a wealth of documents that have only been published in Japanese, making searching in Japanese vital for a comprehensive prior art search.

Until now, we have witnessed clients turning around disputes or negotiations to their advantage by identifying useful documents by adding Japanese documents to their search. For instance, just one piece of Japanese document we had identified significantly impacted patent licensing negotiations and infringement suits in the United States.

We are experts in searching Japanese patent literature and Japanese non-patent literature. Our prior art search is characterized by the following three points.

1. Thorough prior art search

Search strategies are devised by our experienced patent attorneys with a full understanding of the target technology. Instead of efficiently closing the search with a bundle of only several hundred documents, our patent attorneys typically review over 1,000 documents. In many cases, for up to around 1,000 documents, the time spent is proportional to the result.

2. Developing logic

For invalidity search, we develop logic to invalidate patents on the basis of identified Japanese documents. This technique is especially effective when X document is not identified but Y documents are identified.

3. Non-patent literature

One of the characteristics of Japanese companies, universities, and research institutions is that they are active in academic conference presentations and the publication of technical reports. Although it takes time to search these kinds of non-patent literature, we can sometimes identify impactful documents.

 

As explained, our prior art search is steps ahead of search by general search companies. We strongly believe our Japanese prior art search service will be useful in your important business scenarios such as lawsuits and negotiations.