Patent survey to Japanese R&D-directed firms

The patent systems in the world have been standardized. The patent laws including Japanese one have been revised in accordance with this standardization. We investigated how Japanese firms utilize the patent systems and how they have changed their behavior for patent protection between the last decade and the next decade by use of a questionnaire. The survey was conducted to 60 R&D-directed Japanese firms in the second half of 2011 (response rate was 35%). The firms as a sample were selected on the basis of the ranking of R&D expenditure and the number of patent applications. The results show, a) No big differences are found between activities for obtaining patents between the last decade and the next decade, b) The patentability of services inventions provide an incentive for patenting these inventions to the firms with higher R&D expenditures, c) It seems that the extra period of a patent protection affect on R&D expenditures of firms with lower number of patent applications, and d) As international activity for patent protection, the firms seem to put emphasis of their patent protection on those in China and India.