IP NEWS:SOEI Patent & Law Firm

On April 26, 2006, the Japanese Patent Office have published the statistics of Laid-open applications and registered patents in eight fields (http://www.jpo.go.jp/shiryou/toukei/1402-027.htm). The government has focused on these fields because they would like to accelerate research and development and the right transfers in these fields to strengthen Japan’s strategic soft assets. The eight fields are: Life Science, Information and Telecommunications, Environment, Nanotechnology/Materials, Energy, Manufacturing Technology, Infrastructure, and Threshold Technologies. Of these, four fields (Life science, Information and Telecommunications, Environment, and Nanotechnology/Materials) have a higher priority and will be provided with increased research and development funds, in accordance with the basic plan for Science and Technology approved at the cabinet meeting held by the government in March, 2001.

The table below gives statistics for publications and registrations in Japan from 2004 to 2005:

Number of Laid-open applications

Field	2004 Jan-Dec	2005 Jan-Dec	Variation Increase/Decrease	Variation /ratio (%)
Life Science	27,665	28,793	+1,128	+4
Information and Telecommunications	63,220	61,507	-1,713	-3
Environment	10,347	10,136	-211	-2
Nanotechnology/Materials	36,781	38,472	+1,691	+5
Energy	7,834	8,732	+898	+11
Manufacturing Technology	18,709	18,295	-414	-2
Infrastructure	8,472	9,171	+699	+8
Threshold Technologies	419	402	-17	-4

Numbers of registered patents

Field	2004 Jan-Dec	2005 Jan-Dec	VariationIncrease /Decrease	Variation /ratio (%)
Life Science	5,907	5,982	+75	+1
Information and Telecommunications	13,828	15,037	+1,209	+9
Environment	2,336	2,859	+523	+22
Nanotechnology/Materials	7,562	7,135	-427	-6
Energy	1,453	1,423	-30	-2
Manufacturing Technology	3,596	3,917	+321	+9
Infrastructure	1,802	1,969	+167	+9
Threshold Technologies	180	169	-11	-6

In Japan, the number of Laid-open applications and registered patents are the highest in Information and Telecommunications, Nanotechnology/Materials and Life Science. At 22%, the rate of increase in Environmental registrations is the highest. Furthermore, the 11% increase in Laid-open applications in Energy suggests there is growing interest in this area. Also, the field of Energy is showing a high rate of increase in the percentage of Laid-open applications (11%).

In addition to Japan, this publication also released the data from the United States and Europe. These data for 2004-2005 show the differences in the filing pattern characteristics of these countries as described below:

In the field of Life Science, the United States has the highest number of Laid-open applications, and Japan has the least number of registered patents.

In the field of Information and Telecommunications, Europe has the least number of Laid-open applications, while the United States has the highest number of registered patents.

In the field of Environment, Japan has an enormous number of Laid-open applications, four times that of either the United States or Europe. Japan also has the highest number of registered patents, twice that of either the United States or Europe.

In the field of Nanotechnology/Materials, Japan has the largest numbers of Laid-open applications followed by the United States and Europe, in that order. However, the United States has the highest number of registered patents.

In the field of Manufacturing Technology, Japan again has the highest number of Laid-open applications, approximately double the numbers seen in either the United States or Europe. However, the number of registered patents is about the same in all of the territories, with the United States having a few more than the others.

Reading the data in this way reveals the technical fields that each country is focused on. These statistics were extracted by the JPO using keywords and the International Patent Classification (IPC).