Regional Development and IP
A patent attorney’s perspective
Dr. Shoichi Okuyama
Okuyama & Sasajima
March 2019
In Manila

Brands• Steve Jobs once wrote: “To me,marketing is about values. This is a very
complicated world, it’s a very noisy
world. And we’re not going to get thechance to get people to remember
much about us. No company is. So wehave to be really clear on what wewant them to know about us.”Source:InterBrand

Known Brands in the Philippines

Source: Trusted Brands

What is Branding• Product• Broadly, a product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy awant or need, including physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons,places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas• Everything salable – smart phones, watches, clothing, hotel stays, entertainment,sightseeing tours, restaurants and Internet pages• Brand• “Brand” is trust accumulated among consumers in your products through itsuse• A brand may be a name, term, design, symbol, sound or any other feature that identifies
one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers

What does this mean?
• Consider or create trademarks that are distinct and useful inaccumulating trust through use• “Tasty Cheese” can never be a brand• Position yourself• Use the brand or trademark in such a way to generate trust
among consumers• Quality control is most important, and price worthiness is important• Control suppliers or licensees for quality• Control quality of local or regional products• Make brand or trademark as much visible aspossible to consumers• Packages, commercials, sound or color marks• Technology trademarks are also useful• Watson, Skyactive, Propilot, Xeon

Trademark
registration isessential, but it is
only a startTrademarks• National Filings• Myanmar will start• Madrid Protocol• Coming to ASEAN• Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore,
Philippines, Thailand, Viet Num• India• May not be good for attorneys, but good forinternational brandingGeographical Indication• GI protection is important• But beware, it is government driven• Enforcement is carried out by the government, not by theregistrant• Requires strong lobbying groups• Without effective lobbying, it is no better than TM• Form lobbying groups?

• Voluntary and autonomous quality control isessential• It has to be strong and effective

Protection of local brands in Japan• Regional Collective Trademarks since 2006
• A kind of certification marks• Name of a locality + product name only
• 664 registrations as of Jan 2019

• Geographical Indications since 2015
• 73 registrations as of Dec 2018
• Incompatible with TM protection• Enforcement is done by the Government• Coordination with EU (Japan-EU EPA in Feb 2019)• Abraham Lincoln noted: “The patent
system adds the fuel of interest to thefires of genius.”

Patents• inscribed on the side of the Commerce
Department facing the White HousePatent wars of Japan• Great light bulb war (1929-1935)• Japanese manufacturers (~200) exported light bulbs to the US andEurope vs. GE, Philips and other European makers• Sewing machine war• Anti-trust issues as well

• RCA as an NPE, Westinghouse, and EMI• Electric bulb and transistor technology patents• Japanese companies had to pay JPY 18 billion (~US$ 50 million) in1969• Mr. Jerome Lemelson

Great electric bulb war• Japanese manufacturers (~200) exported lightbulbs to the US and Europe vs. GE, Philips andother European makers• Several took license• A consortium of Japanese companies lost alawsuit in the US• Had to stop exportation• Behind the scene, US and European companies
formed cartel against Japan

Sewing machine war• The Singer Company (US sewing machine maker)
formed a cartel of Canadian, Swiss, Italian andGerman companies• Singer sued The Brother International (Japanese) forpatent infringement in 1958 and Brother filed acountersuit of anti-trust before the US Department ofJustice• DOJ sided with Brother, but the District Court foundinfringement• The case went to the US Supreme Court and Brotherprevailed in 1963

TVs and Radios after WWII
• Capital and investment relationships formed again• Mitsubishi Electric w. Westinghouse• Fuji Electric w. Siemens• Toshiba w. GE• RCA as an NPE + Westinghouse and EMI• Electric bulb and transistor technology patents• 2% to RCA, 0.7 % to Westinghouse, 2% to EMI• Japanese companies had to pay JPY 18 billion (~US$ 50million) in 1969

Mr. Lemelson• If you go to the National Museum of American History in Washington DC,
you will find the LEMELSON CENTER for the Study of Invention andInnovation• Mr. Lemelson studied US patents and filed a very large number of patentapplications (he had 600 US patents) to fill gaps he found without his own“real” research• Intermittent auto wiper, automated warehouses, industrial robots,cordless telephones, fax machines, videocassette recorders,camcorders, and the magnetic tape drive used in Sony's Walkman
tape players• He asserted his patents against US and Japanese companies• At one point in time, JP companies collectively paid US$600 million a year inlicensing fees from Japanese and US$1.6 billion in total• He was well known for his contributions to schools, etc.

Filings in Japan – Pat, UM, Design, TM
500,000

Peak in 2001 440,000
patent applications

450,000

400,000

Patent350,000

Service marks became
registrable

300,000

250,000

Multiple claims
allowedUM Actamended

200,000

Trademark150,000

100,000

Utility Model
Design50,000

1960
1961
1962
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2015
201620170

2014

2012

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1960

Number of utility patent applications filed
annually in the US
700,000

600,000

500,000

400,000

300,000

200,000

100,0000

To have a head start - summary• Innovations, inventions and branding are intangible assets thattranscend country borders• Policies to encourage local patent filing and local branding areimportant• Incentives as a means for educating on IP• Make people aware of power of IP for profits and growth• Innovations for growth• Protection is just a backup for businesses, but it is important when yourbusiness is successfulThank you
okuyama@quon-ip.jp