Background

 In corporate global strategy, while the importance of intellectual property protection is increasing, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which is an international convention, stipulates that patents granted in different countries are independent of each other. This kind of analysis is characterized by the fact that the extent of patent disputes in each country is limited to the relevant country and that the conditions surrounding each country’s system of patent litigation are different in economic analysis on patent litigation.

Objectives and overview

 (1) We collect and organize information on patent litigation—patent infringement cases in particular—in Japan, the U.S., China and other countries, and try to build a database so that we can conduct comparative analysis by collecting and organizing hidden patent portfolios and inter-patent citations owned by the party concerned in the relevant patents and management information on the party.
(2) Based on the data described above and the results of interviews with related parties, we conduct empirical analysis from the viewpoint of international comparison of decisive factors for the outcome of each patent trial. Also, we consider differences and changes in the patent trial system of each country and the effects of these differences. Based on these analyses, we aim to clarify the effects of legal conditions with different patent trial systems that Japanese global companies are facing.

Expected effects

 By obtaining new knowledge based on the viewpoint of international comparative analysis of patent litigation cases, academic contributions and significant results in terms of innovative policies are expected to be achieved.