Searching for Registered Designs in Japan
Recently, the opportunity to exercise design right is increasing in Japan. To find out whether your product design conflicts with the design rights of others, you can wait for the examination results of the application. However, searching for earlier registered designs before filing is also effective.
That is to say, to determine whether your product design infringes the design right of another, it is important to survey currently existing registered designs for common or similar designs. Such a survey would identify all the prior registered designs in the field of concern from the Design Gazette.
Under Japanese design practice, designs are not made public before registration. Therefore, it is impossible to survey currently pending design application.
On the other hand, if you search for a specific applicant or for a specific registration date, a preliminary search by using the IPDL (Industrial Property Digital Library) is effective before making main search.
2.Search Method
It is necessary to understand the following information before starting a search.
[Article]
The use and the function of an article concerned should be identified. (Special care is necessary when the article is multi-functional or has several uses.) It is also better to survey parts and fittings of the design.
[Shape]
The shape of the design can be determined from prior designs. Select a similar design or a design having similar parts.
3.Search Results Review
Evaluate the similarity between the design concerned and the prior design revealed by the search.
The Design group at Soei Patent and Law Firm will be pleased to prepare comments and report search results to applicants. We will also attach the relevant prior registered designs for your review. A design survey takes about one to three weeks and the estimated fee is 50,000 to 150.000 yen.