Message from the president

  As I embark on my second year as the president of the Japan Patent Attorneys Association (JPAA) on April 1, 2024, I would like to express my deep appreciation for your understanding and cooperation in JPAA’s affairs.

  In FY2023, the reclassification of COVID-19 from a Class 2 equivalent infectious disease to a less-stricter Class 5 equivalent prompted various efforts throughout Japan to bring back social lifestyles to the state before the pandemic. Under such circumstances, JPAA pushed forward various policies under the slogan “Building a Foundation for Securing Stability in the Future!” This fiscal year, while building on the activities in the previous year, I intend to continue with the efforts to lay JPAA’s foundation for securing sustainable and stable activities for patent attorneys in the medium to long term as well as further strengthening our relationships with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and other intellectual property-related organizations, and strive to develop and foster patent attorneys.

  As the business plan for FY2024 was not yet finalized at the time of preparation of this address, please note that the actual activities may differ in some respects from the draft business plan below.

1. Introduction

　In FY2023, JPAA conducted various activities with five ongoing initiatives, such as “collaboration with related organizations, including the JPO” and “promotion of IP creative education,” and five new initiatives, such as “collection and analysis of information” and “global assessment of the JPAA’s activities,” as its major initiatives. While building on these activities, we will continue onward and implement initiatives centered on the following ten priority items this fiscal year.

2. Specific initiatives

(1) Promotion of activities for strengthening the development of the “IP business management Support Network”

　In March 2023, the JPO, the National Center for Industrial Property Information and Training (INPIT), the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), and JPAA made a joint declaration for developing the “IP business management Support Network.” Last fiscal year, with this joint declaration as a momentum, we focused on making close exchange of information among the JPO and the Regional Bureaus of Economy, Trade and Industry, the local chambers of commerce and industry, INPIT, and the regional branches of JPAA. This fiscal year, we will utilize the developed network to provide IP support services to small and medium-sized enterprises, venture companies, and start-ups in the respective regions in a manner that suits the actual circumstances of each region.

(2) Seeking out the practice of patent attorneys in the generative AI era

　As it is an urgent task to adapt the practice of patent attorneys to the new environment in the generative artificial intelligence (AI) era, we will continue to collect relevant information, and hold various training sessions on AI. In addition, given that the use of generative AI involves risks, preparations will be made for formulating guidelines on the use.

(3) Response to fields in which patent attorneys are expected to play an active role

　In light of the fact that patent attorneys are expected to play an active role as human resources for standardization strategies and those for planning, development, and negotiations, we will continue to exchange opinions with related ministries and agencies, and propose specific measures for patent attorneys to play an active role in these fields.

(4) Strengthening of efforts in the agricultural, forestry, and fisheries fields

　In order to strengthen efforts in the agricultural, forestry, and fisheries fields, we will continue to exchange opinions with related ministries and agencies, and propose specific measures for patent attorneys to play an active role in these fields.

(5) Promotion of international protection and exploitation of intellectual property

　One of the strong points of patent attorneys is the ability to provide a global business support, such as support for advancement into overseas markets. With an aim to further reinforce this strong point of patent attorneys, we will promote expansion of international relations activities.

(6) Collection and analysis of intellectual property-related information

　We will study methods to organize and accumulate the information collected during FY2023. We will also study matters such as the purpose of collection of information, establishment of the collection routes, and creation of a database of the collected information.

(7) Efforts as a Co-creation Partner of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan

　As a Co-creation Partner of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, we will strengthen collaboration and cooperation with external organizations, such as related government offices and other related organizations, toward the holding of the Expo.
　We will also continue our activities to publicize JPAA’s support to the Expo.

(8) DE&I efforts

　We will continue our activities from last year to promote diversity,equity and inclusion (DE&I).

(9) Efforts at KidZania

　We organized a Patent Attorneys Week at KidZania Tokyo in March 2024. Also this fiscal year, we intend to realize organization of a Patent Attorneys Week at KidZania Fukuoka and KidZania Koshien.

(10) Other

　We will study development of provisions related to patent attorneys, including those in the Patent Attorneys Act, such as studying provisions that prohibit capital contribution in patent attorney corporations by non-patent attorney investors.

　In addition to the major initiatives above, we will also push forward various initiatives that have been promoted since the past. I consider that advancing these initiatives cannot be achieved without the JPAA members understanding the necessity of and participating in the implementation of these initiatives. To this end, it is important for us to share various information that is widely gathered from in and outside the Board of Executive Directors with the members, to think together, and to implement the initiatives in concert.

　I appreciate your support and cooperation as we advance these initiatives to enable patent attorneys to contribute to social and economic development by assisting Japan’s economy and industry from the standpoint of intellectual properties.

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