7 FY2012 Analysis of Economic Growth Arising from
Applications for Industrial Property Rights in Japan (*)
Intellectual property systems, such as the patent system, are some of the most important parts of theinfrastructure supporting innovative activities; and patent data plays a vital role as an indicator for measuring
the research and development activities of companies and other entities.
This analytical study incorporated the research outcomes accumulated to date, while also making use of theSurvey on Intellectual Property-related Activities conducted by the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and databases suchas PATSTAT and a Chinese patent database. In this study, a total of seven empirical analyses were carried out: (1)relational analysis between the number of patent applications filed in Japan and the number filed in foreigncountries, focusing on Japanese applicants; (2) influence of the length of time before the commencement of
examination on the examination results and stability thereof; (3) analysis of complementary use of the design
system and the patent system; (4) statistical analysis of patent applications filed by Japanese joint venturecompanies in the East Asian region, excluding Japan; (5) analysis of the stability of rights in relation to trials forinvalidation; (6) review of methods of estimating the number of requests for examination in Japan; (7) statisticalanalysis of intellectual property rights and advantage in financing. In addition, the revision of the survey design of
the Survey on Intellectual Property-Related Activities was also considered.

I

Introduction

Intellectual property systems, such as thepatent system, are some of the most importantparts of the infrastructure supporting innovative
activities; and empirical study on innovation andintellectual property systems has been carriedout vigorously worldwide. This report firstprovides a review of the global trends in using
patent systems and an analysis of why the
number of patent applications filed in Japan has
been sluggish in the midst of the global growth inpatent filing, from the perspective of thecorrelation between international filing anddomestic filing by Japanese companies. The
report also covers an analysis of the trends infiling in China by applicants, including Japanese
joint venture companies, with the use of data
released by the Chinese patent office.
The report provides an analysis of the qualityof patents. It points out the possibility that the
reduction in the length of time before thecommencement of examination has made itdifficult to perform high-quality examinations, andalso reveals the fact that the longer it takes to filea request for a trial for invalidation after theregistration of rights, the less likely it is for therequest to be accepted.
Furthermore, an analysis was conducted on
the reality of complementary use of the design
system and the patent system; and an attempt(*)

was also made to analyze the influence thatcompanies’ possession of intellectual property
rights have on their financing conditions.
In addition to the abovementioned analyses,
this report presents findings on the current statusof the patent data, developed and provided by theEuropean Patent Office (EPO), and theinternational research trends, while providing asummary of the Patent Statistics for Decision
Makers Conference and the PATSTAT User Day
Meeting, both held in November 2012 andattended by the members and secretariat of thisstudy committee.
In Part III of this report, the Survey onIntellectual
Property-related
Activities
isdiscussed. The report provides a review of the
improvements for the survey that have been
proposed and implemented to date, andsummarizes the results of the interviews with theentities that carry out the survey. It also presents
the deliberation on whether or not it would beappropriate to include the actual and estimatednumbers of requests for trials in the survey items,
which led to a negative conclusion.
(Sadao NAGAOKA)This is an English translation of the summary of the report on the FY2012 research project contracted out by theJapan Patent Office, entitled “FY2012 Analysis of Economic Growth Arising from Applications for Industrial
Property Rights in Japan”.
●

IIP Bulletin 2013 Vol.22

1 ●Ⅱ Analysis of Behavioral Trends inFiling Applications for Industrial
Property Rights
1

Relational
Analysis
Betweenthe
Number of Patent Applications Filed inJapan and the Number Filed in Foreign
Countries, Focusing on JapaneseApplicants

In this study, the correlation between thenumber of patent applications filed in Japan andthe number filed in foreign countries by Japaneseapplicants was analyzed chronologically and by astatistical approach. This analysis revealed thatthe correlation differs depending on technicalfields. The major findings are summarized asfollows.
(1) Focusing on the 197 major Japanesecompanies, their behavioral trends in filing
applications
only
domesticallyweresomewhat different from such trends inrelation to all domestic applications filed inJapan. The number of applications filed only
domestically by those major Japanesecompanies began to show a slight decline in
the early 1990s, a little earlier than the
decline of the total number of domestic
applications filed in Japan, which began in theearly 2000s.
(2) While the number of applications filed only
domestically has been gradually declining
since the early 1990s, the number ofapplications filed both domestically andinternationally has been on the rise. The
most popular foreign country chosen by
Japanese companies filing applications both
domestically and internationally is theUnited States. In recent years, the number of
those filing applications in China in addition
to Japan has been increasing.
(3) The statistical analysis of the correlation
between applications filed only domesticallyand applications filed only internationallyindicates that these two types of applications
deal with substitution to some degree.
However, since the ratio of applications filed
only internationally, which was used as an
explanatory variable in this statisticalanalysis, was a very small value, a largecoefficient was used for estimation.
Therefore, the degree of substitution
betweendomestic
applications
andinternational
applications
cannotbediscussed solely on the grounds of said●

analysis result.
(4) In the analysis of international applications
filed in the United States and China, it
became clear that in the case of Chinese
applications, in particular, the market size
and the indicator of the protection capabilityof intellectual property systems have astatistically significant influence on thenumber of applications. In the future, ananalysis by patent family should beattempted in addition to an analysis bycompany.
(Yoichiro NISHIMURA)
2

Influence of the Length of Time Before
the Commencement of Examination on
the Examination Results and Stability
ThereofThis study analyzed how the reduction in thetime lag between the filing and thecommencement of examination, which wasachieved by speeding up the patent examination
process, has influenced the scope of prior art
search conducted by examiners and the stabilityof the examination results. In this analysis, inorder to identify the cause-and-effect relationshipbetween the early commencement of examinationand the quality of examination, an instrumental
variable approach was applied (by using the
reduced period for allowing a request for
examination as an instrumental variable).
As a result of the analysis, it became clearthat as the length of time before thecommencement of examination is reduced byexogenous factors, such as the reduced period forallowing a request for examination, the scope ofprior art search conducted by examiners was
reduced and the prior art documents to be used
for examination were limited to old documentsthat had been published long before theapplication subject to examination was filed. It
was confirmed that the reduction in the time lag
before the commencement of examination would
increase the rate of trials against examiners’
decisions, and at the same time, it would also
increase the rate of decisions of registration.
Thus, the analysis suggested the possibility thatthe reduction in the length of time before thecommencement of examination would result in
the decrease in the number of prior art
documents available to examiners and the decline
in the quality of examination. Meanwhile, withregard to the correlation with trials forinvalidation, no significant effect was observed by
2 ●IIP Bulletin 2013 Vol.22

an instrumental variable approach. This pointshould be further studied in the future.
When a decision to grant a patent is issued
prior to the publication of the application andwhen accelerated examination is conducted, thereduced time lag before the commencement of
examination had a greater influence on the qualityof examination. In fields where the issue of apatent prior to the publication or the accelerated
examination frequently occurred, even when thetime lag was controlled, the rate of filing and therate of acceptance of requests for trials forinvalidation increased. The availability of
feedback from third parties may be one of thefactors behind these trends. Further study would
be necessary on this point.
In conclusion, in order to both increase thespeed of examination and ensure the quality of
examination, it is important to enhance the JPO’s
examination ability and also to reinforce themechanism for having the information held by
third parties reflected in the examination process
by promoting submission of information by third
parties and introducing a post-grant opposition
system.
In
addition,sinceaccelerated
examination requires more resources in order toensure precision, it would be worth considering
raising the amount of fees for a request for
examination to an appropriate level.
(Sadao NAGAOKA, Isamu YAMAUCHI)
3

Analysis of Complementary Use of the
Design System and the Patent System

As the first step toward grasping the actual
conditions of the mixing (combination) ofintellectual property rights, this chapter explores
the possibility of complementary use of thedesign system and the patent system. Specifically,a regression analysis was carried out on theapplicant level by using the number ofapplications for design rights as a dependent
variable, so as to investigate whether incentives
for applying for design rights would increase to
make up for the inappropriability of innovation incertain situations. An example situation would bewhen sufficient protection of intellectual property
rights could not be expected under the patent
system due to the difficulty of obtaining patents
or the amount of time it takes to establish patentrights. The major analysis results are
summarized as follows.
There was no such correlation suggestingthat applicants who belong to fields whereobtaining design rights is easier would file more●

IIP Bulletin 2013 Vol.22

design applications. It was not found that themore difficult it is to obtain patent rights, thegreater the incentive would be to apply for design
rights, or that the more difficult it is to obtainpatent rights, the more design applications would
be filed because of the possibility to obtain design
rights easily. The fact that it is possible to obtain
design rights quickly did not show an effect ofincreasing the incentive to apply for design rights.
It was not found that the longer it takes before
the establishment of patent rights, the more
applications would be filed for design rights, orthat the longer it takes before the establishmentof patent rights, the more design applications
would be filed because of the possibility to obtain
design rights quickly.
Thus, the results of the analysis using thenumber of design applications as a dependent
variable did not demonstrate any correlationsuggesting that design rights are applied for witha view to making up for the inappropriability ofinnovation under the patent system. However,some estimated equations showed that more
applications would be filed for design rights intechnical fields where the period of patentexamination is short. Assuming that the length of
the time lag before the decision to grant a patent
depends on the complexity of the invention or thedifficulty of examination arising therefrom, it ispresumed that in technical fields where this time
lag is short, more applications would be filed forinventions that are relatively closer tocommercialization, rather than inventions still inbasic research. In such fields, there may be agreater incentive to protect technical innovation
by both patent and design rights, or to use adesign right to protect the outer design or
package of the product, and this may lead to anincrease in the number of design applications. In
short, the analysis suggests that complementary
use of the design system and the patent systemdoes not arise from a sort of negative intention(i.e., applying for design rights due to theimpossibility of protection under the patent
system), but obtaining both design rights andpatent rights is rather intended to achievestronger protection of products.
(Kenta NAKAMURA)
4

Statistical
AnalysisofPatentApplications Filed by Japanese Joint
Venture Companies in the East AsianRegion, Excluding Japan
This study investigated the trends of patent

3 ●applications filed by Japanese joint venturecompanies in China and analyzed the rate ofrequests for examination, the period between therequest for examination and the registration ofrights, and the status of maintenance of rights,
targeting all Chinese patents. The major analysis
results are summarized as follows.
(1) Among the 315 Japanese joint venturecompanies based in China subject to theinvestigation, 69 of them filed 528
applications with the Chinese patent office.
This number is very small compared to thenumber of applications filed with the Chinese
patent office by applicants residing in Japan.
Most of those 528 applications were filed bycompanies in semiconductor and home
appliances since the 2000s.
(2) The tabulation of data of all applications filedwith the Chinese patent office, in terms of
the period before the request for
examination, the period before theregistration of rights, and the status ofmaintenance of rights, revealed a large gap
between applications filed by applicants
residing in China and those filed byapplicants residing overseas. Looking at thetrends of applications filed in 2000, theaverage period before the request for
examination was 12 months among
applicants residing in China and 23 months
among applicants residing in Japan. The
average period between the request of
examination and the registration of rights
was 33 months among applicants residing in
China and 47 months among applicants
residing in Japan. Furthermore, focusing on
the registered patent rights applied for in
1990, 85% of such registered patent rights
obtained by applicants residing in Japan weremaintained ten years after the registration,
whereas the maintenance rate among theregistered patent rights obtained byapplicants residing in China was 25%. With
regard to applicants residing in other foreigncountries, the period before the request for
examination, the period required for
examination, and the period of maintenanceof rights are longer than those for applicants
residing in China.
(3) From the regression analysis carried out by
using the time lag between the request for
examination and the registration of rights
and the time lag between the filing of
applications and the expiration of rights, it
became clear that even under the controlled●

conditions relating to the quality of
inventions (e.g., the number of claims, thenumber of times cited), the period of
examination and the period of maintenanceof rights in respect of applications filed byapplicants
residing
in
China
were
significantly short in statistical terms.
(Naotoshi TSUKADA, Kenta KOSAKA)
5

Analysis of the Stability of Rights in
Relation to Trials for Invalidation

This chapter provides an analysis of trials forinvalidation requested against the patents applied
for in 1990 and thereafter, with the aim ofempirically demonstrating factors that contributeto the stability of rights. Specifically, focusing on
the procedural developments during theexamination stage and the trial stage, estimation
was carried out by a regression-analysis approach
to find factors that lead to the acceptance of arequest for a trial for invalidation, and thereby
identifying factors that contribute to the creationof stable rights. The following results wereobtained from the estimation by a logit andordered logit models.
In the examination procedure, neither thenumber of pre-grant submissions of informationby third parties nor the number of interviews
with applicants in the examination process had asignificant effect on the probability of invalidation.
The former factor was expected to improve thequality of examination because it was presumed
to be effective at increasing the amount of
information available to examiners and putting
the examination resources within the JPO
intensively into applications that claim inventionsof greater importance. However, given that thestability of rights or quality of examination isevaluated on the basis of the outcome of the trial
for invalidation, none of the expected effects was
detected. As for interviews with applicants during
the examination process, this procedure was
expected to narrow the gap in available
information between the applicant and theexaminer, and thereby improve the quality of
examination. However, this effect was notconfirmed. On the other hand, it was found thatthe outsourcing of the prior art search contributes
to the creation of stable rights. In addition, it
became clear that patents granted throughaccelerated examination have been invalidated
frequently in recent years. This suggests that if
an examination is requested at an early stage, theopportunity for third parties to submit
4 ●IIP Bulletin 2013 Vol.22

information would be limited and examiners
would face more difficulties in accessing prior art
information concerning the latest researchachievements, which might result in the reduced
quality of examination. The analysis also
indicated that the larger the number of
amendments, the less likely patents are to beinvalidated, whereas the larger the number ofnotices of reasons for refusal, the more likely
patents are to be invalidated.
In connection with the trial procedure, theanalysis focused on, in particular, whether patents
that have been subjected to oppositions but havebeen maintained would be able to survive a trial
for invalidation. According to the estimate,patents that have continued to exist after being
subject to oppositions are less likely to beinvalidated even when a trial for invalidation isrequested. Since most patents subject tooppositions are for important inventions, it ishighly likely that a trial for invalidation will be
requested if an opposition is dismissed. The
estimate result indicates that the examination in
response to an opposition increases the stabilityof rights. It was also revealed that the longer ittakes between the registration of rights and therequest for a trial for invalidation, the less likely
it is for the request for a trial for invalidation to
be accepted. This suggests that the probability
that valid grounds for invalidation are found does
not increase along with the passage of time, butrather a trial for invalidation supported by valid
grounds is requested at an earlier stage.
(Kenta NAKAMURA)
6

Review of Methods of Estimating the
Number of Requests for Examination inJapan

In this study, an attempt was made to review
and improve the current method of estimating thenumber of requests for examination in Japan. The
major findings are summarized as follows.
(A) According to the basic analysis and statisticalanalysis of the applicants’ behavioral trends
in filing requests for examination, it became
clear that not only do the year of filing, thenumber of years that have passed since thefiling, and the filing route have an influenceon such behavioral trends, but so do otherfactors such as the technical field, thenumber of claims, and the number of
inventors.
(B) In light of the point mentioned in (A), it may
be theoretically reasonable to focus on the●

IIP Bulletin 2013 Vol.22

three factors applied in the current
estimation method (i.e., the year of filing, thenumber of years that have passed since thefiling, and the filing route) and use therunning average of these factors in the past
three years as the estimated values for the
next year.
(C) Empirically, or when an estimation is madeby using actual data, the current estimation
method is slightly inferior in accuracy to theimproved method proposed in this study.
However, the current method is moreconvenient than making up for suchinferiority in accuracy.
(Yoichiro NISHIMURA)
7

Case Study on Economic Analysis
Methods Applied in Relation to
Industrial Property Rights in Foreign
Countries

This chapter reviews the study reports
presented at the Patent Statistics for Decision
Makers Conference held in Paris (OECDCongress Centre) in the fall of 2012; and theeconomic analysis reports on industrial property
rights presented at the PATSTAT User Day
Meeting held before the conference, and compiles
the examples of economic analysis methods.
The PATSTAT User Day Meeting consistedof (i) the reports on the PATSTAT and otherrelated databases and services, (ii) the reports on
the link between the PATSTAT and non-patent
databases, and (iii) the Q&A sessions. The topics
addressed in these reports included the next
version of the PATSAT, the link between the
PATSTAT and other databases including thosecontaining corporate data and literature data, andwith regard to Chinese patents in particular, it
was pointed out that the number of applicants andthe number of inventions available on the
PATSTAT are smaller than those numbers
available on the patent database provided by the
Chinese patent authorities.
The Patent Statistics for Decision Makers
Conference consisted of six sections, under thefollowing titles: Innovation Modes and Firm
Performance; The Value of Innovations; New
Challenges; IP Systems and the Role of Policy;
Innovation and Financing; and The Location of
Innovations. At this conference, 19 study reports
were presented.
The specific topics of the reports included
the following: co-ownership of intellectual
property; the role of geographical factors in the
5 ●markets for technology in biotechnology industry;
new methods for valuing patents; analysis ofpatents for technologies peripheral to technicalstandards in the ICT industry; the impact ofenvironmental
inventionson
industrial
profitability; the impact of patents on the IPO
market; the seasonal characteristics of patentfiling in China; the impact of patent ownershiptransfer on patent litigation; patents and venture
capital investments; and the inflow of inventors
and the growth of local companies.
The tendency of the recent OECD meetings
on patent statistics is that reports reviewing thetrends of the use of the PATSTAT and suggesting
its availability in research are presented at thePATSTAT User Day Meeting, and reports on awider array of topics are presented at the Patent
Statistics for Decision Makers Conference. At the2012 conference and meeting, innovation was a
popular theme in the reports.
(Kenta KOSAKA, Kenta NAKAMURA)
8

Statistical Analysis of Intellectual
Property Rights and Advantage in
FinancingThis study reviewed whether financing iseasier for companies with more intellectual
property rights or for companies with moretangible fixed assets that can be used as collateral.
In other words, it reviewed which types ofcompanies have a greater advantage in financing.
The major findings are as follows.
(1) Along with the increase in the number ofpatent rights that a company owns, theamount of new long-term loans the company
can receive would increase.
(2) Companies with a larger number of design
rights can receive a larger amount of new
long-term loans.
(3) Along with the increase in the amount oftangible fixed assets that a company owns,
the average interest rate for new long-termloans that the company can receive would
decrease. Companies with a larger amount oftangible fixed assets can receive newlong-term loans at a lower average interest
rate.
These findings made clear that assets with ahigh potential for serving as collateral, such as
tangible fixed assets, have an influence on theinterest rate upon receiving loans, whereas assets
with a low potential for serving as collateral, suchas patent rights and design rights, have an
influence on the amount of loans upon receiving●

loans. This may be good news to those companies
that have already used most of their tangible fixed
assets as collateral for loans and do not retain alot of tangible fixed assets available as collateral,or to companies that do not have a lot of tangible
fixed assets but retain intellectual property rights
including patent rights and design rights.
(Yoichiro NISHIMURA)

Ⅲ Revision of the Survey Design oftheSurveyofIntellectual
Property-related Activities
1

Revision of the Questionnaire Used in
the Survey Design of the Survey ofIntellectual Property-related Activities

This study reviewed the improvements forthe survey that have been proposed andimplemented to date, and then identified those
proposed but not yet implemented. As a result, it
was found necessary to standardize and prioritize
the error-checking and query procedures, make ashift to the online survey, and give an additionalnote on licensing income and expenditure.
In addition, interviews were conducted withthe entities that carry out the survey to discuss
details of the survey, including the survey method,
survey items, and the layout design of thequestionnaire. The main opinions and proposed
improvements are summarized as follows.
The error-checking and query proceduresare performed in full at present. The problem isthat the initial responses contain so many errorsthat it would be difficult to ask the respondents toresubmit their responses to all questions in thequery procedure. Other problems peculiar to thissurvey that are not found with other types ofsurveys are that the survey items are difficult tounderstand and that, for some, it took
considerable time to complete the query
procedure because personnel in their intellectual
property departments were often out of office.
As for the layout design of the questionnaire,some held the opinion that it is difficult tounderstand the relevance between the total
number and each number included therein. The
present layout has room for improvement, so
respondents can perceive such relevanceintuitively. As for the notes, some respondents
stated that this survey has more notes than othersurveys. In this respect, it was proposed that thequestionnaire and the instructions (including thenotes) be prepared in separate volumes, or thatthe questions be put on the left pages and the
6 ●IIP Bulletin 2013 Vol.22

notes be put on the right pages. Improvementsthat may be relatively easy were also proposed,such as changing the character font, adding
headings for notes, indicating the fiscal year of
the survey, and revising the number of digits(thousand or larger).
With regard to the cover sheet, the current
version enables a respondent to enter all member
companies of its corporate group. This styleallows arbitral grouping and causes a variation in
responses. One possible solution to this problem
is to ask all respondents, including those thatexist as holding companies, to respond as a single
entity, while treating holding companies as
another type of business.
In light of these findings, there is room toconsider drastic reform to the layout design of thequestionnaire in order to improve the response
rate and accuracy.
(Koichiro ONISHI, Kenta KOSAKA, Atsushi
NISHIO)
2

Review of the Survey Items of theSurvey of Intellectual Property-related
Activities

In order to more effectively gain
understanding of the reality of companies’
intellectual property-related activities, this study
considered whether or not it would be appropriate
to include the actual and estimated numbers ofrequests for trials in the survey items of theSurvey of Intellectual Property-related Activities,
while taking into account the following merits anddemerits of this idea.
One possible merit is that if the JPO were toobtain the estimated number of requests for trials
to be filed by individual companies through their
responses to the survey, it could estimate thetotal number of requests for trials to be filed in
the future more accurately. The extent of this
merit would depend on the accuracy of theestimated number actually given by individualcompanies in their responses. Hence, it would be
important to assess the accuracy of the estimatednumber to be given by respondents.
On the other hand, the inclusion of thenumber of requests for trials in the survey items
would increase the burden on the respondents
and result in a decline in the response rate.
In consideration of such merits and demerits,a questionnaire survey was conducted to consider
whether or not it would be appropriate to include
the actual and estimated numbers of requests fortrials in the survey items. This questionnaire●

IIP Bulletin 2013 Vol.22

survey targeted the top 100 entities in number ofrequests for trials filed, and asked them whether
they would be able to give the estimated numberof requests for trials, by type of intellectual
property and by type of trial, when responding to
the Survey of Intellectual Property-related
Activities.
Most respondents answered that they would
not be able to give that number, which suggeststhat the response rate for this additional question
would be low and this addition would increase theburden on the respondents. It was also made clearthat it is difficult for companies to estimate thenumber of requests for trials that they would filein the future.
These findings indicated that the inclusion of
the actual and estimated numbers of requests fortrials in the survey items would be considerably
detrimental as it could lead to a decline in the
response rate and an increase in burden on
respondents. At the same time, since this reform
does not guarantee high accuracy in the estimate,
it would not be so beneficial in estimating futureadministrative costs. Therefore, a deliberate
stance would be required toward including theactual and estimated numbers of requests fortrials in the survey items.
(Kenta KOSAKA, Kenta NAKAMURA, Atsushi
NISHIO)(Researcher: Kenta KOSAKA)

7 ●