Japan's efforts to bolster the legal system for protecting intellectual property (IP) rights reached a major milestone with the recent establishment of the Intellectual Property High Court. The new court, which is housed in the same building as the Tokyo High Court, will handle a broad range of disputes involving IP rights, including patent rights, utility model rights, trademark rights and copyrights.
It is a wish come true for the business community, which had lobbied actively for the creation of such a specialized arbitration body. In 2002, the government, in a bid to "build a nation strong in intellectual property," set up the Strategy Council on Intellectual Property. Later in the same year, the high-powered panel announced a set of policy guidelines, including those aimed at facilitating IP litigation.
The need for an IP court is widely recognized for two reasons: First, the rampant piracy and copying of Japanese products, including animation, movies, music CDs and electronic devices, is seriously undermining the nation's corporate interests. Second, IP trials at Japanese courts have taken an unreasonably long time because of the shortage of judges specialized in this field.