Yuzuki Nagakoshi
Max Plank Institute for Innovation and Competition and the University of Tokyo

For the past 20 years Japan has been continuously revising the patent revocation system, the last revision being enacted in April 2015. This whole process has been a huge endeavor aiming at obtaining the advantages of bifurcated and non-bifurcated systems while minimizing the disadvantages of both systems and maintaining the consistency of the systems. The reform could be understood as a part of the “pro-patent policy” of the Japanese government, aiming at enhanced protection of patent rights. In recent years,1 it evolved into a more goal-oriented “pro-innovation Policy,” which emphasizes more on the innovation generated as a result of adequate IP protection including patents.