NSF Tokyo Reports. Report Memorandum No. 218. MITI's New Patent Rules forInternational R and D Projects

摘要

Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has succeeded inhaving pertinent laws and regulations revised to permit the sharing between government and private companies of patents derived from international joint Research and Development (R&D) projects commissioned by MITI itself or by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Previously, all patent rights from government-financed contract research projects had been made a property of the Government. The primary objective of the revisions is to promote international cooperation in R&D on industrial technologies by removing some of the restrictions imposed on foreign partners to own the rights to patents resulting from such collaborations. The document contains an 'unofficial' translation of the pertinent sections of the revised law and a related Cabinet Order, and a brief discussion of some of the implications of the revisions.