From Stars and Stripes to Rising Sun: A Study of Patent Laws in the United States and Japan :: Patent Laws Japan USA Essays

From Stars and Stripes to Rising Sun: A Study of Patent Laws in the United States and Japan Introduction There is no question that the United States and Japan are technological leaders of the world. They are two of the nations with the highest annual number of intellectual property patents granted.1 Both nations have achieved such great successes in the world of intellectual property as a result of a variety of reasons. Among these reasons is the encouragement of innovation and invention with monetary benefits in return. Both the United States and Japan have well-defined, stringent patent laws for intellectual property. These laws encourage competition among organizations and individual inventors to create new innovations, rather than to redundantly develop products that have already been invented by others. While some critics argue that such laws are unfair and cause monopolies in societies that enforce them, this paper will address how intellectual property laws actually benefit societies and how their enforcement is necessary for societies to adhere to a strong ethical code. In order to understand intellectual property laws, it is first important to have an understanding of the term â€Å"intellectual property.† As defined by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), intellectual property â€Å"refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, and images used in commerce†.2 Software is an example of intellectual property. When you buy software, you buy the tangible disk that the program comes on, but the disk is not what is of value in your purchase. You also buy the rights to use the program contained on the disk, and that software is the intellectual property that you pay for. In most Western nations, an invention of intellectual property is patentable. Patents are granted in order to protect the rights of the inventor for some period of time after the initial release of the invention. The justifications for enforcing patent laws include the advancement of technology, the increase in economic growth, and the improvement of the quality of life.3 These are compelling reasons for nations to have clearly defined patent laws on intellectual property, and they are some of the reasons that the United States and Japan have similar patent laws. In addition to patent laws within individual nations, WIPO is an international organization that oversees international patents. Individual nations can voluntarily join WIPO, whose current membership is 179 nations.