Japan - accelerated Patent examination

In a constructive step towards executing the idea of ‘accelerated examination’ for patent applications [as mentioned in a previous post], Japan, has leapfrogged in setting a benchmark. The Japan Patent Office which receives 420,000 applications annually, indeed has an uphill task of processing these applications in a timely and justified manner.

In a collaborative effort of usurping the negative attributes of a slow patent obtaining process, the Japanese Government has enacted the Expeditious Patent Examination Law in 2004. Since 2004, the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) has begun groundwork to achieve a waiting time for examination process to be the world’s shortest at 11 months in 2013, and towards realizing the ultimate goal of a zero period of waiting.

To deal with the massive amount of applications, the Japanese Patent Office expects to meet a target of hiring 500 examiners over a 5-year period to provide the pillars of support to the on-going process of accelerated examination. As a precedent of sorts, the JPO has granted the world’s fastest patent after a mere 17-day screening process. The patent deals with a process of detecting toxic metals in water, granted to Keio University.

PatentInc* Viewpoint:

Armed with the belief that a faster examination process will not only expedite the cascaded effects of translating patent applications into rightful patents, but also be the pivoting cause for more and more people/enterprises/RnD centres to acknowledge the patent protection route, the JPO has indeed begun to pave a way for building a faster, formidable patent docket.

[* PatentInc. – a proprietary outfit in the field of Intellectual Property, India]