An increasing number of SMEs are using the international system to receive the same treatment in more than 150 countries by filing one patent application.
The background is that there are many small and medium-sized enterprises that actively expand overseas or suffer from counterfeit products overseas.
In principle, you must apply for each country in order to obtain a patent for an invention.
The procedure was complicated for companies trying to do business in multiple countries.
If you use a system called PCT / International Application, you can consider that you have submitted one patent application to the Japan Patent Office on the same day in more than 150 countries that are members of the Convention.
According to the Japan Patent Office, the number of SMEs using this system was 5072 last year.
This is an increase of 6.9% over the previous year, the highest since 2010 when we started collecting statistics.
The background is that the number of small and medium-sized enterprises that are actively expanding overseas is increasing.
In addition, it is said that there are many cases of suffering from counterfeit products because they have not obtained patents overseas.
The JPO wants to focus on protecting the intellectual property of SMEs, such as reducing the fees required for international applications.