Intellectual Property Law: Patents, Trademarks, Copyright, and Trade Secrets
This section covers intellectual property: patents, trademarks, copyright, and trade secrets. The exam tests which regime protects which asset, registration effects, infringement, and defenses.
Core rules
- Patents protect new, industrially applicable inventions with an inventive step. Japan uses a first-to-file system; examination is required; term is twenty years from filing. Publication of prior art matters.
- Trademarks protect signs distinguishing goods or services. Rights arise on registration, not use alone; distinctiveness is required; terms are ten years and renewable. Unregistered well-known marks may be protected by unfair competition law.
- Copyright arises automatically on creation of a work; registration is not required. Moral and economic rights protect expression, not ideas. Protection generally lasts seventy years after the author's death.
- Trade secrets under the Unfair Competition Act require secrecy, economic value, and reasonable management. Misappropriation can be enjoined and compensated.
Worked example
A company develops a new machine and keeps its design drawings confidential while filing a patent. A competitor copies the drawings. If the patent is granted, patent infringement may lie for the claimed invention. If the drawings contain protectable expression, copyright may also apply, but copyright does not protect the functional idea. Trade secret liability depends on confidentiality management and improper acquisition.
Traps
Do not assume copyright registration creates rights. Do not rely on trademark use without registration except under unfair competition. Do not confuse patent novelty with inventive step. Do not disclose a trade secret without confidentiality measures and then claim protection.