Draft Budget 2009 for Intellectual Property Matters
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) published the overview of the Draft Budget for 2009 for intellectual property matters. According to the overview, the budget for 2009 will be 120400 million yen, a 2400 million yen (2.0%) decrease from last year. For the realization of “the country built on intellectual property,” the JPO stated that they will continue to follow the four main policies listed below formulated by the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters and set out in the “Intellectual Property Promotion Plan 2008.” The amounts in parentheses are the budgets for 2009.
I. Provide fast and accurate patent examination that will satisfy the world’s highest standards (61790 million yen)
II. Promote global rights and strengthen measures against copied products (2590 million yen)
III. Assist local, small and medium-sized companies in utilizing intellectual property (2940 million yen)
IV. Improve the environment for promoting innovations and encourage the intellectual property creation cycle (13730 million yen)
The JPO stated that they will achieveI.by “outsourcing more prior art searches,” “improving the operation and the system,” “developing new search systems,” and “improving the accelerated examination system;” II. by “promoting the international harmonization and cooperation of intellectual property systems,” “strengthening the protection of intellectual property and reinforcing measures against copied products;” III. by “consulting businesses,” “assisting businesses with their applications,” and “promoting local intellectual property strategy businesses” and IV. by “providing intellectual property information and improving the environment for promoting open innovation,” “providing transparent patent information,” and “providing intellectual property information.”