Alan Engel
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From: Andy Berks [SMTP:BERKSA@war.wyeth.com]
Sent: 1997 $B!I (JN 10?? 1 $B!H (Ju ?...?j $B!H (Ju ?s $B!F (JO 09:35 (J
To: piug-l@derwent.tecc.co.uk
Subject: JP claim format? -Reply
To expand on Japanese patenting behavior, my scanning of the Derwent
Doc Abstracts Journals, and some rough statistics I've prepared,
suggests that Japanese companies (at least in pharmaceuticals and
biotech) are increasing turning to the PCT as a filing medium. In the
past two years, there have been large increases in Japanese language
PCT applications. I surmise that Japanese companies view this type
of filing as a way to avoid the traditional JPO aversion to lengthy
patents with lots of claims. By filing with the PCT, a Japanese
inventor can file a patent in Japanese language with "western" style
conventions (many claims, many pages), and have the added advantage
of deferring translation costs. Another bonus (for the Japanese
inventors) is that Japanese language PCT's cannot be digested by
machine translation services, which reduces access to the invention
by those of us who don't read Japanese. This is because Japanese
language PCT's are not published in the electronic format that the
machine translations use.
Andy Berks
Andrew H. Berks, Ph.D. Sr. Chemical Information Research Scientist
Wyeth-Ayerst Research Information Sciences and Services
Bldg 160/101 tel: 914-732-3908 fax: 914-732-4837
Pearl River NY 10965 USA email:berksa@war.wyeth.com