December 20, 2021
The Significance of the Role of Industrial Property Rights in Realizing the"Promotion of the Transformation of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Industry into aGrowth Industry" Proposed at the "New Capitalism Realization Conference"

MIYOSHI & MIYOSHI
Vice Chairman: Shunichi Takahashi
Recently, the Patent Attorney Act has been revised to provide for duties related tobreeder's rights and geographical indications (GI).

As a result, patent attorneys will be able toprovide consultation services related to the protection of breeder's rights and geographicalindications (GI) and support overseas applications for breeder's rights and geographicalindications (GI) on a regular basis from April 1, 2022.
In order to realize the "promotion of the transformation of the agriculture, forestry andfisheries industry" into a growth industry proposed at the "New Capitalism Realization
Conference" by the Japanese government, an idea behind the revision is to further involve patent
attorneys, who are experts in intellectual property, based on the recognition of the need for IP
management by means of a combination of intellectual property and intellectual property rightsthat makes more effective use than ever before of the many intellectual properties shown in thereference figure below.

In other words, patent attorneys have always supported the use of intellectual property
in the field of the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry.

However, according to the resultsof a survey conducted by the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the patent attorney utilization rate ofagricultural, forestry and fisheries businesses which possess intellectual properties (breeder'srights, geographical indications (GI), and regional collective trademarks) is 62.1%, and the patent
attorney utilization rate even when limited to holders of breeder's rights and geographicalindications (GI) is 55.8%, which means that from the perspective of all agricultural, forestry andfisheries businesses the percentage becomes even lower. The sad reality is that there are a certain
number of reasons for not using patent attorneys such as "we simply did not know about patent
attorneys" and "we did not know that patent attorneys can handle the field of agriculture, forestry
and fisheries".

For such reasons, we believe that it is important to make patent attorneys, whoare experts in intellectual property, known to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries businesses andutilize patent attorneys to practice intellectual property management based on an effective
combination of intellectual property and intellectual property rights.

With the growing international reputation of Japanese agricultural products, adverse
effects on the domestic agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry have become apparent due tothe overseas outflow and imitation of seeds and seedlings found in strawberries and grapes (ShineMuscat is famous) and of livestock genetic resources such as semen from Japanese beef cattle.
If this situation is left unchecked, there is no hope of the "promotion of the transformation of theagriculture, forestry and fisheries industry" into a growth industry" being realized. The Ministryof Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan has already formulated an intellectual property
strategy to realize the development of the domestic agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry byutilizing intellectual properties, and has implemented measures such as the abolition of the Seeds
Act, the revision of the Plant Variety Protection and Seed Act, and the introduction of geographicalindications (GI) in the last few years.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and FisheriesIntellectual Property Strategy 2025 sets a target of "5 trillion yen" in exports of agricultural,forestry and fishery products and foods by 2030.
As an extension of the use of intellectual property to date, can we achieve the"promotion of the transformation of the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry" into a growthindustry" simply by providing high-quality agricultural, forestry and fishery products while
making steady improvements as before?

In order to realize the "promotion of the transformationof the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry" into a growth industry" in the future, it is easy
to foresee that, above all, it will be necessary to overcome the competition with companies newly
entering the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry and overseas agriculture, forestry andfisheries companies, while preventing the aforementioned situation of the overseas outflow andimitation of seeds and seedlings and livestock genetic resources. In other words, it is necessary
to strengthen the competitiveness of agriculture, forestry and fishery products both domesticallyand internationally.

In the future, in the context of the global expansion of agricultural, forestry

and fishery products, it will be necessary to respond to various forms of international
standardization, or engage in the overseas production and sales business (royalty income fromoverseas has been increasing in this business) in cooperation with reliable partners. If that is thecase, it is unthinkable to carry on business without any weapons.

Intellectual property is a

powerful weapon against the above competition and so on.
In the past, intellectual properties used mainly in the field of agriculture, forestry andfisheries have included breeder's rights under the Plant Variety Protection and Seed Act,
geographical indications (GI), trademark rights as industrial property rights for branding, andinformation assets such as know-how and trade secrets.

In particular, there has been a

combination of intellectual property and an intellectual property right that combines a trademark
and a breeder's right as seen in "Amaou" (brand name of a Japanese strawberry), and a
combination of intellectual property and an intellectual property right that combines a regional

collective trademark and a geographical indication (GI) as seen in "Ichidagaki" (brand name of aJapanese persimmon) in the Shinshu region.

Of course, such combinations of intellectualproperty and intellectual property rights need to continue.
Moreover, in the future, it is necessary to further improve the quality of agricultural,
forestry and fishery products and produce attractive and unique products, and in realizing market
expansion globally it is further necessary to innovate the following technologies: technologies forutilizing new plant lines and microorganisms, unique breeding and cultivation technologies using
smart agriculture, and advanced food processing and packaging technologies, and industrial
property rights such as patent rights will play a greater role in protecting the results of suchinnovations. As for patent rights, since the coexistence of breeder's rights and patent rights ispermitted, it is possible to obtain breeder's rights and patent rights for a new variety.
Furthermore, a powerful intellectual property network can be established for a new variety byobtaining and combining trademark rights with breeder's rights and patent rights. For example,
there is a case in which a patent was obtained for an "aerial cultivation method for pumpkin"(Patent No. 2509148), and the cultivated pumpkin is differentiated by a trademark right called"flying pumpkin" (Trademark Registration No. 2597162).

If the pumpkin seed itself is a newvariety, by obtaining the breeding right, it would be possible to call this a combination ofintellectual property and intellectual property rights combining a patent right and a trademark
right based on a breeding right.

In this way, a combination of intellectual property andintellectual property rights, which combines industrial property rights such as patent rights, utility
model rights, and design rights, is an important weapon.
As mentioned above, industrial property rights play an important role in realizing the"promotion of the transformation of the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry" into a growthindustry", and I sincerely hope that those engaged in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry
will learn the usefulness of industrial property rights and promote the utilization of industrial
property rights.
End.