What are the reasons why Japanese enterprises file so many patent applications without request for examination?

摘要

Since Japan stated in 2002 to become an Intellectual Property based nation, Japanese enterprises have tried to improve Intellectual Property strategies to contribute to the strength of global competitiveness. Japanese enterprises file many patent applications every year. However, about 35% patent applications in Japan are withdrawn without requests for examination. We reached to the research questions why Japanese enterprises have the tendency not to make requests for examination while they have filed many patent applications. We asked Japanese enterprises by questionnaires; what are the most critical reasons why they need to file many patent applications and why they need to make requests for examination about many patent applications. We made analyses on the aggregate results by statistical methods. We found that filing many patent applications aiming “Patent Blocking” is the critical factor to have increased the number of patent applications without request for examination. Moreover, this factor “Patent Blocking” initiated to increase the number of total patent applications in Japan. We assume that filing many patent applications aiming “Patent Blocking” is Japanese unique way to define their patent application strategy. Those findings will be helpful to promote effective patent application strategy with global competitiveness for all global enterprises.