JP claim format? -Reply

Andy Berks (BERKSA@war.wyeth.com)
Wed, 01 Oct 1997 09:13:06 -0400

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

>>> <Donald_Walter_AT_rps-va%ccmta@swpco.com> - 9/30/97 10:26 AM >>>

From: Donald Walter AT rps-va@ccmta on 09/30/97 10:26 AM

From Mike O'Keefe, Derwent, Japan

Multiple independent and dependent claims are now allowed in the
Japanese patent system. This is a change from a historical
system
where JPO practice and patent charges mitigated in favor of a
one-patent-one-claim system. This changed about 1992.

In a recent study by the Japan EPI association, they found that
the
average number of claims was as low as 3 for unsophisticated
Japanese
companies filing at JPO and as high as 13 [!] for the top
company
[Hitachi] which, by the agreement of all companies attending,
had lead
the way in the use of multiple claims [no distinction was made
as to
whether they are dependent or independent].

However, a quick survey of WPI records will reveal that many WPI
records have more Japanese Patent family members than members