Patent agents test in Japan, etc

Alan (aengel@intlscience.com)
Thu, 18 Nov 1999 16:58:35 -0500

According to the Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese
Patent Office is planning to simplify the patent
agents' exam in order to increase the number
of agents. Currently, only 3% (yes, that is three
percent) pass the exam yielding only 200 new
patent agents each year.

In other announcement, the JPO is proposing
to establish a new patent licensing clearinghouse
to breath life into the many dormant patents in
Japan. This is to be an expansion of activities
of the Japan Technomart Foundation.
(http://www.jtm.or.jp - No English)

Also, on October 1, Japan promulgated its own
version of the Bayh-Dole Act to stimulate
licensing of university inventions.

--
Alan Engel
ISTA, Inc.
ConvertedKokai(tm) machine translations of Japanese patents
http://www.intlscience.com