Reportage - Exploring new IP landscapes and trends in the EU and Japan

Tokyo October 28, 2019

The EU-Japan Technology Transfer Helpdesk (initiative of the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation) co-organized a seminar with Sonoda & Kobayashi Intellecutal Property Law and IAM on “Exploring new IP landscapes and trends in the EU and Japan” on October 28 at the EU Delegation to Japan. The seminar explored trends, opportunities, and challenges faced by IP professionals, especially in in-house positions, when dealing with strategy-related topics about the intellectual property rights they manage such as international patent filings in the EU and Japan, and the dynamics of corporate IP functions in light of the technological development.

In the opening remarks, Mr. Gabriele Lo Monaco, First Secretary of the EU Delegation to Japan stressed the importance of the themes covered by the event in terms of IP and personal data, including specificic mentions to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the Strategic Partnership Agreement, which would lead the cooperation between the EU and Japan to a new and heightened phase.

Dr. de Taxis du Poet, EU-side General Manager of the EU-Japan Center for Industrial Cooperation explained in his welcoming remarks how the Centre promotes bilateral cooperation in the field of technology and innovation in the EU, Japan, and also possibly in third countries. He touched upon various activities including information service activities for the promotion of EU’s research and development program, and the EU-Japan Technology Transfer Helpdesk, the entity organizing the event itself.

The speakers, Dr. Sonoda (Sonoda&Kobayashi), Mr. Sewerin (Kransell & Wennborg), Mr Sato (Panasonic), Mr. Matsuo (Hitachi), and Mr. Vario (Nokia) covered the seminar’s main topics highlighting themes such as patenting of AI, IP monetization, standards, essential patents, value creation for society through IP, and recent IP cases from Europe.

Mr. Luca Escoffier, Project Manager of the EU-Japan Technology Transfer Helpdesk moderated the panel discussion in which the speakers participated. He addressed several questions to the panelists for obtaining a clearer vision about their prior presentations, topics like patentability of AI inventions, open innovation, and standard essential patents have been covered during this session.

See all the videos on our YouTube channel

Here are some photos of the seminar: