U.S., Japan Sign Accord on Patent Law
Trade negotiators from the United States and Japan, struggling to keep rising trade tensions from escalating into economic warfare, signed an agreement Tuesday to bring their divergent patent laws for software and other intellectual property into line.
Hammering out an agreement has been a top priority for U.S. software designers, who have complained for years about weak or nonexistent legal safeguards that have allowed overseas competitors to pirate their products. Provisions in the accord will take effect by 1996.
Signed by Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown and Japanese Ambassador Takakazu Kuriyama, the settlement calls for a major overhaul of the Japanese patent system, which U.S. trade officials said has undercut American inventors’ efforts to enter the Asian marketplace. Changes in the U.S. system will be comparatively minor.
To enact the changes in the U.S. and Japanese systems, Brown and Kuriyama will introduce bills to their nation’s lawmakers next month after negotiators have closed the current round of trade talks.
Reaching a consensus on the patent system represents one of the few bright spots in the talks, which have been bogged down by disputes over an array of issues, including automobiles and pharmaceuticals.
Announcement of the agreement may ease U.S.-Japanese friction over patents, which give inventors the exclusive right to market their products. U.S. inventors have criticized the Japanese system for failing to protect information contained in patent filings from pirates. Japan has derided the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for being too secretive.
With the settlement, U.S. inventors who have had an “awfully tough” time penetrating the Japanese market will have an easier time competing, said Bruce Lehman, commissioner of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which issues about 100,000 patents annually. Patent violations in Asia cost U.S. innovators more than $10 billion a year, Lehman said.
The agreement will change longstanding rules in both countries.
In Japan, the accord will bar Japanese inventors from opposing patents sought by foreigners before they are granted. The agreement will also establish an accelerated application program in Japan to enable inventors to obtain a yes-or-no response to their patent request within three years instead of the usual five. U.S. innovators will also be able to file patent applications in English for the first time. The Japanese Patent Office will stop awarding compulsory licenses, which force foreign inventors to give up their exclusive rights by licensing rivals to use their technology.
In the United States, officials will start publishing pending patent applications 18 months after they are filed--a step Japanese inventors hope will eliminate “submarine” patents, so called because previously unknown inventors can suddenly surface and demand royalties on a product before anyone knew a patent had been granted. U.S. patents will also be valid for 20 years after the application is filed--similar to patents issued in other countries--instead of 17 years after the patent is issued.
But the accord did not resolve Japanese complaints about the U.S. practice of granting patents only to the inventor of a product rather than to the first applicant. Most countries around the world employ a first-come, first-served system but U.S. patent officials have resisted pressure to change.
Saying that the Clinton Administration has made progress in “resolving some longstanding difficulties,” Brown promised that the agreement will help U.S. inventors win better access to Japanese markets.
