International Activities

Report: The 13th JIPA IP Symposium
“The Roles of IP in Economic Partnerships”

JIPA held the 13th IP Symposium under the title of "Fly ahead Japan! -What IP should be under Economic Partnership-" at the Tokyo International Forum on February 24, 2014. This year, about 900 IP-related people from enterprises, government, and academia gathered. One keynote speech was given in the morning and two panel discussions in the afternoon.

In the Guest Speech part, we were privileged to welcome Mr. F. Gurry, Director General of WIPO. He mentioned JIPA's contribution to the world including environmental technology. Besides, Mr. Hato, JPO Commissioner, gave a congratulatory message to JIPA.

Further, Mr. Battistelli, EPO President, gave the keynote speech, entitled "The Role of IP in Economic Partnership," and particularly talked about the European Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court including the background of the setup, history, and expectations thereof.

In panel discussion I, moderated by Prof. Takakura (Meiji University), Mr. Kikuchi (SAPPORO) of the JIPA Economic Partnership Task Force first overviewed the current status of the economic partnership agreement between Japan and other countries and introduced current issues in which enterprises are interested. Then Mr. Koyama, attorney at law (former negotiator) for the experience in the negotiations, Prof. Nagata (Kyushu University) from the viewpoint of developing countries, and Prof. Watanabe (Tokyo University) from the viewpoint of IP/innovation each talked about their experiences and introduced case studies to deepen the discussion on the "Current Situation and the Prospects."

Further, in panel discussion II, moderated by Ms. Mihara (TEIJIN), Mr. Kondo (TOYOTA), Mr. Moriya (SONY), Mr. Mineki (Bridgestone), and Mr. Morita (Astellas Pharma) talked about expectations of their respective companies, and introduced cases of challenges encountered in their overseas business and solutions to them, on the assumption that economic partnership would proceed in the medium and long-term future.

The poster session promoted lively interaction with companies considering sending their staff members to expert Committees and committee ex-members. As for the annual poster awards, the first prize was awarded to the License Committee, the second prize the Management Committee, and the third prize the Patent Second Committee. The follow-up study group on companies with a small IP division won the President's Award for its special poster presentation.

• Back