Review Survey on Consistency with TRIPS Agreement of Intellectual Property
Related Laws and Regulations in Respective Countries
This report summarizes the matters examined by the "International IntellectualProperty System Study Group" in FY2019．
In this year's Study Group, we discussed the situation surrounding intellectual
property in international frameworks and bilateral and regional economic partnershipagreements, as well as the situation surrounding intellectual property systems in variouscountries.
First, concerning the situation surrounding intellectual property in the internationalframework, in Chapter I, Section I, "Expansion of the Scope of U.S. Export Controls
under the Export Administration Reform Act," the current status of strengthening
technology controls in the U.S., including export controls for technology based on theExport Administration Regulations (EAR), etc., were examined, including therelationship with intellectual property.
In the same Chapter, Section II, "Recent Cases Concerning Medicinal Products",
the status of Chinese genetic resources, developments in Indonesian patent law, andrecent discussions at WHO was discussed.
In the same Chapter, Section III, "Trends of Discussions in the WTO/TRIPS
Council and WIPO" of the same section, we discussed the current situation, issues, andmeasures that Japan should take, such as the possibility of applying non-violation to theTRIPS Agreement and incentives for technology transfer to least developed countries(LDCs).
In the same Chapter, Section IV, "Trends of Discussions at the Hague Conference
on Private International Law Concerning Recognition of Enforcement of ForeignJudgments, etc.," we summarized and analyzed the current status of the legal system
concerning the recognition of enforcement of foreign judgments, the systems in eachcountry including the opinions of government study groups and related organizations, andthe remaining issues about intellectual property.
Second, about the situation of intellectual property in bilateral and regional
economic partnership agreements, in the “Comparative Survey of Intellectual Property
Chapters in Recent RTAs ” in Chapter 2, Section I, we compared and analyzed the major
10 RTA’s (TPP 11 Agreement, Japan-EU EPA, AANZFTA, U.S.-Korea FTA, ChinaSwitzerland FTA, China-Korea FTA, Indonesia EFTA, USMCA, EU-Singapore FTA,and EU-Vietnam FTA) concluded in recent years, focusing on the provisions on
intellectual property enforcement and unfair competition in each RTA.
In the same Chapter, Section II, "Study on Consistency with Provisions on theEffectiveness of the Exercise of Rights in Response to Acts of Infringement inInternational Agreements", we will examine the status of implementation of obligations
and consistency with provisions related to the effectiveness of the exercise of rights ininternational agreements such as the TRIPS Agreement and the EPA with Japan. Besides,by confirming the provisions under relevant international agreements in five Asianemerging and developing countries (India, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, andIndonesia) and collecting information on the damage situation regarding counterfeit
goods and pirated copies and the actual situation of exercising rights, we examined theactual situation regarding the consistency with the provisions related to the exercise of IP
rights in international agreements in the countries concerned.
Third, concerning the state of intellectual property systems in each country,
Chapter 3, Section I, "Protection of Trade Secrets － Focusing on the internationaldimension－", examined recent trends in trade secret protection in Japan, the UnitedStates, and Europe, as well as each country's trade secret protection rules against trade
secret infringement in foreign countries.
In the same Chapter, Section II, "Legal Issues Concerning Cross-border Transfersof Information and Data," the trends in countries regarding regulations on cross-bordertransfers to protect personal information and the consistency of regulations on crossborder transfers of information with the WTO Agreement were examined.
In the same Chapter, Section III, "Overview of Data Protection Legislation inMajor Countries and Regions," we compared and reviewed the overview of dataprotection legislation in Japan, the EU, the US, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India.
In the same Chapter, Section IV, "Repair Clause on Design Right for Spare Parts",
the outline, background, and history of the repair clause in the EU, recent trends such as
the revision of the German Design Law, discussions on the consistency with Article 26,Paragraph 2 of the TRIPS Agreement, and the possibility of protection of spare parts inthe U.S. and Asia were discussed concerning the protection of spare parts of composite
products by design right.
In the same Chapter, Section V, "Trends in IP Systems in the U.S. and China," wesurveyed recent trends in IP-related system revisions in the U.S. and China.
In the same Chapter, Section VI, "Analysis of Assessments and Benchmarks of IP
Enforcement in Emerging and Developing Countries," Based on the evaluation of reports
issued by the World Economic Forum, the Software Alliance (BSA), the Center for
Global Innovation Policy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Property Rights
Alliance, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the European Commission
were included in the study, and the evaluations and benchmarks in each report wereanalyzed of nine countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines,
Thailand, Vietnam, and Ukraine) as our survey target.