IP NEWS:SOEI Patent & Law Firm

The best known examination in intellectual property in Japan is the Patent Attorney Examination. This examination is designed to evaluate the legal knowledge and aptitude necessary to act as a representative of others before the Japanese Patent Office. For this purpose, questions focus on Japanese laws related to all intellectual property rights including the Patent Law, the Utility Model Law, the Design Law and the Trademark Law. Also covered are the Unfair Competition Prevention Law and the Copyright Law.

There is also another, less well-known examination called “The Intellectual Property Proficiency Examination.” According to the organizers of this examination, the Association for Intellectual Property Education, the purpose of the examination is
» To enhance interest in and awareness of intellectual property in individual students and workers,
» To enhance interest in and awareness of intellectual property in individual researchers and engineers, and
» To provide a specific measure to evaluate the ability of individuals employed in Intellectual Property Departments and Legal Departments.

The examination consists of several sub examinations at different levels of difficulty. The individuals select the examination the level at which they wish to be tested. Those who pass the highest level examination are deemed to be qualified
» To be in charge of the intellectual property (mainly patent) matters of an Intellectual Property Department, Engineering Department or the like and to manage intellectual property matters smoothly and
» To pinpoint problems pertaining to intellectual property (mainly patent) and cooperate with patent attorneys or lawyers in addressing such problems.
Thus, this examination is especially designed for the people in charge of the Intellectual Property Department or the Legal Department of corporations, research institutes, universities and the like.

The sample questions for the 1st Grade examination provide on the home page of the Association for Intellectual Property Education are fairly difficult. On the whole they were quite practical, asking the test-takers to decide, for example, which of several alternative claim descriptions is most suitable. Thus, the nature of the Intellectual Property Proficiency Examination is quite different from the Patent Attorney Examination, which is basically an examination of the relevant laws.

There is also an examination in the copyright area that is similar to the Intellectual Property Proficiency Examination, called “The Copyright Proficiency Examination for Practical Business.”

However, individuals who successfully pass these examinations are not qualified to act as representatives for others in lawsuits or other legal proceedings involving copyrights or patent applications. Nonetheless, it would be difficult to pass these examinations without extensive legal knowledge and plenty of practical experience.

The official home page of the Intellectual Property Proficiency Examination may be found at:http://www.ip-edu.org/exam/shusaisha.html(in Japanese only).