The Japanese patent office (JPO) recently released its report for 2019, which provides interesting data about national and international patent filings in 2019 and JPO policies. We have gone over the report and present you the takeaways we found most relevant.

1. Number of filed applications in Japan decreasing

For the past few years, a slight but steady decrease in overall filings of patent applications in Japan can be seen. In 2018 313,567 applications were filed which is over 35,000 less than in 2009. Additionally, an increase in international applications can be seen. Here international applications refer to PCT applications that entered the national phase for Japan. To enter the national phase an application needs to be translated into Japanese so as a translation service provider this a trend we are happy to observe.

2. US, Germany and China are filing in Japan

Looking at which countries are filing with the JPO we can see that obviously Japan is number one due to many national applications. Besides that, the US, Germany and China are the countries with the most filings in Japan. Currently, transeuro specializes in translation between the languages German, Japanese and English but we also have limited capacities for Chinese translation.

3. Samsung and Huawei on the rise

When looking at the companies with the most filings in Japan, we see no change for the Top 3 domestic companies. Mitsubishi, Canon and Toyota are in the same order as last year. When looking at the foreign companies we can see an interesting change. Huawei has climbed to number 3 followed by Samsung on number 4 surpassing LG Chem and General Electric. Number one and two are Qualcomm and Royal Philips like last year.

4. Number of applications worldwide

In contrast to the applications filed in Japan, we can see an increase in worldwide filings for the past few years. Compared to 2008 about 1,6 times as many patents were filed in 2017.

When looking at which patent office receives the most filings, we can see a steady increase in filings with the USPTO for the past few years. For the CNIPA there is a very steep increase from starting from 2015. In 2017 the CNIPA received 420.000 applications, which is more than double of the applications received in 2013.

5. Applicants are satisfied with the JPO

 In the last few years, user satisfaction with the JPO has increased. In 2018 more than 60% were “satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied”. In 2014 it was below 50%.

The JPO has implemented various methods to increase user satisfaction, one of them being interviews with patent examiners. These are also available via video conference for foreign applicants or applicants in remote areas.

Further emphasis is put in the JPO’s endeavours to speed up the examination process via fast-track examination, outsourcing of prior art searches and securing the necessary number of examiners.

Unfortunately, there is no information about the satisfaction of international applicants to be found in the report. Are you satisfied with your patent filings in Japan? If you are facing issues caused by inappropriate translations, we can help. transeuro has long-term experience with patent translations and has been participating in JPO working groups to establish translation glossaries for technical terms.

Feel free to contact us. We would be happy to provide a free quotation.

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The data and the charts above were sourced from the Japan Patent Office Status Report 2019.

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