Effective April 1, 2009, provisional exclusive license and/or provisional non-exclusive license can be registered at the Japan Patent Office based on a license agreement before an application is granted a patent. The new recordation system will provide protection for the licensee of the pending patent application against any third party who subsequently acquires the right to the license to the pending patent application or granted patent with respect to either the provisional non-exclusive or provisional exclusive license. Therefore, even if the licensor (applicant or patentee) goes bankrupt, the bankruptcy trustee will not be permitted to terminate or change the license agreement once it is registered with the Patent Office.

In order to preserve the confidentiality of the content of the agreement, the licensee’s name, the license’s scope of claims, and the name of the bankruptcy trustee will not be made public for non-exclusive licenses. For more information on this Japan Patent Offices revision, please contact our office at usmail@keisenassociates.com.

(posted July 15, 2009)