Penalty for Patent Infringement to be Increased
At the end of February 2006, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that it would seek legislation to increase the penalties under the patent law, trademark law, design law, and unfair competition prevention law. The planned legislation would increase the maximum penal penalty for the manufacture or sale of a product without legal authorization from the present five years to ten years. Imprisonment can be sought for any person or representative of a corporation found guilty of violation of these laws. The Ministry also plans to double the maximum fine from the current five million yen to ten million Japanese yen. The maximum penal penalty under the utility model law will remain five years.
The objective of the law amendment is to crack down more rigorously on “copied products.” The bill is likely to be submitted to the ordinary session of the Diet, and it will go into effect in 2007 at earliest. Thus, Japanese IP system is being improved to protect owners of IP rights and to prevent unauthorized use.