JP-NETe – A English-language search tool for Japanese unexamined patents

Patent filings from East Asian countries are increasing year by year. According to the WIPO Patent Report 2007, three major Asian Patent Offices, JPO (Japan), SIPO (China) and KIPO (Korea) are all ranked in the top 20 Offices of Filings [WIPO Patent Report: Statistics on Worldwide Patent Activity (2007 Edition): B3. Top 20 Offices of filing. , [1]], and filings in Japan amount to approximately 400,000 patent filings in 2007 [JPO Annual Report 2007: Part1. Trends of Industrial Property Rights: Chapter 1 P6. , [2]]. Faced with the rapidly growing numbers of patent filings, English speaking patent experts have problems in searching and retrieving relevant patent documents for these countries and obtaining results with full legal status and citation data in the English language. With the focus on Japanese unexamined patents, this short communication presents an effective way of retrieving Japanese patent information, by using the JP-NETe patent search system.