Kijuro KawakitaBy Joseph Greenberg -- The business of invention -- Kijuro Kawakita, patent attorney and inventor, tells his students when he visits schools and colleges to teach young entrepreneurs and inventors how to make inventions and protect any success they might have with them, “Many people have inventive capability but they don’t know about the patent system—it is vital for young people and inventors to protect their inventions otherwise they will never be able to compete with big companies.” Kawakita is evangelical about the benefits of thinking through the IP angles early on: “It’s important to think about ways in which the invention could be used in the future.

Nick ReeveBy Nick Reeve -- Obtaining patent protection in Europe is currently an expensive proposition. A single European patent can cost between ¥2,500,000 (€15,000) and ¥7,000,000 (€45,000) to file and take through to grant. The final figure depends on many factors, particularly the European states where protection is required, with the fees for translations often taking up the lion’s share. Recent changes in the European Patent System promise to drastically slash these costs. For Japan, the top patent filing nation in the world, these savings could be a huge benefit.

Kazuko FujitaBy Joseph Greenberg

Kazuko Fujita and lessons for trademark registration in Japan.

Kazuko Fujita is founder and director of the LIL (Legal Interface Liaison) International Patent & Trademark Firm, responsible for an office of 30 staff, a fully qualified benrishi (Japanese patent attorney), a wife and a mother of two children.

Masayuki ShobayashiBy Joseph Greenberg
How the Shobayashi International Patent & Trademark Office has adapted to changes in the international IP environment

The karaoke machine was the brainchild of a man named Daisuke Inoue who, as legend has it, cobbled the thing together out of a car radio, a coin box and a small amplifier back in 1971. Tragically, Inoue did not patent his invention and has never made one yen directly from commercial sales of his invention; some have approximated his loss at around US$150 million.

Yukio NagasawaBy Louise Calvert
J@pan Inc talks to a former intellectual property judge about IP in China, the US and Japan.

Yukio Nagasawa has a phenomenal resume. Among his glittering array of judicial appointments, professorships and qualifications from top global institutions, two features stand out. Firstly, he has a persistent interest in foreign legal systems: having worked and studied across Asia, Europe and the US, he has a wholly global legal perspective. Secondly, with a total of 20 years experience of work as a judge, including five years at the Supreme Court and four years at the Tokyo District Court, he has a unique inside view of the system.