Training Before Enrollment of Patent Attorneys Started
To fulfill a requirement which came into effect in 2008, the Japan Patent Attorneys Association started providing a training program last December that candidates who successful passed the Patent Attorneys’ Examination must complete before they are enrolled in the Association. The Association provides two types of training: Distance-learning in which the candidates access a website via the internet to watch and listen to the lectures and the other is physical lectures at the Patent Attorneys Association’s headquarters. The applicants are required to obtain a total of 144 units using both types of learning. A variety of subjects, such are Patent Attorney Law, Examination Guidelines for Patents, Designs and Trademarks, Preparing Responses to Office Actions and Prior Art Research are available via distance-learning while lectures at the headquarters provide practical exercises in the Scope of Claims, Design Drawings, Arguments and Amendments will be held several times a year.
The four candidates from SOEI who passed the Patent Attorneys’ Examination last year are currently in the training program prior to their enrollment. We look forward to their new expertise when they complete their training the end of March.