Prezio IP Firm

Many international and domestic companies want to obtain the following kinds of Japanese patents:

Patents that effectively block the entry of competitors.
Patents that competitors strongly want to use, but cannot do so.
Patents that can be used to counter the patents of competitors that block other companies from using them.

However, these patents are difficult to obtain in the traditional way. Simply submitting the patent application information gathered from developers into a specification rarely leads to truly good patent applications.

To obtain “usable patents” that contribute to business, it is necessary to examine the rights from various perspectives: looking at the technology from multiple angles, envisioning the products and services where the technology will be applied, predicting how competitors might circumvent the patent, and considering alternative technologies. It is crucial to conduct the above rights examination while strongly imagining not only the content of the technology to be applied for but also alternative technologies, and the products, businesses, and services where the technology is applied.

By conducting such rights examinations, it is possible to generate “usable patents” in the true sense.

We would like to introduce some features of Prezio’s operations.

Patents should not merely be obtained; they must significantly contribute to the business. However, in advanced technology fields, there are usually many existing Prior Arts. Given such circumstances, how can effective patent rights be secured ?

Exploring New Perspectives

The following discussion applies to any technical field, but here we will look at the example of an invention, in this case an adhesive.

Suppose that an adhesive that exhibits some kind of excellent adhesive performance is obtained using multiple commercially available materials and mixing them in a special formulation.

If the invention of this adhesive is understood as the invention of “a special formulation ratio,” the invention covers only a very narrow “point.” Since it is a very narrow “point,” it can be said that the adhesive in question could not be easily achievable by competitors.

As far as the “special formulation ratio” is concerned, it is difficult to obtain a patent right covering a wide range of formulation ratios, even if the range of the formulation ratios can be expanded somewhat using claim drafting techniques.

However, this invention is not an invention with a “special formulation ratio”.

This invention is an invention that has achieved certain special adhesive properties, rather than just a special formulation ratio. Therefore, the special formulation ratio is not the invention, but rather the special adhesive properties are the key point regarding the invention. This is what separates it from Prior Arts. Therefore, we recommend that the claim for this invention is identified as the special adhesive properties.

If it can be clarified what properties of the adhesive changed due to the application of the “special formulation ratio,” and how those properties were achieved, it will be possible to file a patent application as an invention of a higher concept by specifying these properties within a specific numerical range of parameters, for example, modulus of the cured adhesive measured at a certain high temperature, the viscotic behavior of the adhesive measured at various share rates, etc.

If we focus only on the solution reached (in this case, the special formulation ratio), it is often difficult to obtain effective rights. In order to obtain effective rights, it is important to gain insight into the solution reached and fully consider the possible perspectives of the application.

The developed invention should have substantially different properties from Prior Art. If you look at the developed product from a variety of perspectives, you will surely find a special perspective that is less likely to be found in Prior Art.

Figure 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the approach to determining such perspectives.