request for examination
3 years
Office Action
10-12 months
Response
3 months (extendable)
Allowance
3-6 months
Services
Our Services
PCT National Phase Entry into Japan
Please just let us know your PCT application number. We will check the status and let you know the due date and necessary documents to be sent to us from your end.
Patent Translation
Only qualified patent attorneys are in charge of translation services. We do not use translation agencies, whose translations are inferior in quality and do not satisfy the formality requirements.
Prosecution before the JPO
We have prided ourselves in high-quality services from the start of our firm. The same patent attorney is responsible for handling each case entirely from the filing through prosecution.
Trademark Filing in Japan
Please provide us with your logo/mark and goods/services to be designated. We will carefully review them and provide some proposals to comply with the Japanese practice.
Administrative Work
We believe that administrative work is very important in the IP field. Our administrative staffs are well experienced and we apply a triple check process to each case.
Annuity & Renewal
Once your patent/trademark applications are granted, we will enter these into our docket system, and provide you with estimated costs in advance and timely reminders.
Complex Cases
We have devoted ourselves to professional IP work especially in difficult and complex proceedings, including appeals and oppositions, and our firm's success rate in such proceedings is significantly high.
Second Opinion
We also have broad experience in providing overseas clients with second opinions on cases, regarding which they are not satisfied with the current Japanese representatives’ legal advice.
PATENT FLOWCHART
THE FIRM'S OPERATION IS SOPHISTICATED IN ALL ASPECTS
We have streamlined the firm system and strategy to exclusively focus on IP rights in Japan for overseas clients, so that we can provide our best services to our clients in a timely, high-quality and cost effective manner. Please see the flowchart for patent filing & prosecution in Japan.
1. Please just let us know your PCT application number;
2. We will check the status and let you know the due date and necessary documents;
3. We will file a petition for entry to enter the national phase in Japan; and
4. We will prepare and file a full Japanese translation.
1. Please provide us with your mark/logo and goods/services to be designated;
2. We will review the original goods/services and provide you with proposals to comply with the Japanese practice; and
3. We will file a trademark application before the Japan Patent Office.
1. We will send a reminder 2 months before the deadline with estimated costs;
2. Please provide us with your instructions; and
3. We will file a Request for Examination, together with an Amendment if necessary.
1. We will report on an Office Action within 1 month of issue with comments and translation thereof;
2. Please provide us with your instructions; and
3. We will prepare and file a response within a few days.
1. We will report on a Decision to Grant within a few days of issue with estimated costs;
2. We will pay the registration fee within a few days after receiving your instructions;
3. Your application is granted as Patent/Trademark; and
4. We will timely send reminders for future maintenance/renewal.
Timeline for Japanese patent
01 Filing
Petition for Entry: within 30 months
Japanese Translation: within additional 2 months
Petition for entry
30 months
translation
2 months
02 Request Exam.
Request for Examination: within 3 years from international filing date
request for examination
3 years
03 Office Action
1st Office Action: about 10-12 months
Response: within 3 months (extendable up to 6 months)
request for examination
3 years
Office Action
10-12 months
Response
3 months (extendable)
04 Registration
Notice of Allowance: about 3-6 months
Annuity Payment: 30 days
01 patent filing
Choose Your Filing Plan
At our firm, experienced patent attorneys review bibliographic items and prepare necessary documents including Power of Attorney before filing. In addition, the same attorney will prepare a full Japanese translation of the application, ensuring that future prosecution will be conducted smoothly and reliably.
Meanwhile, we understand that some overseas clients prepare Japanese translations at their end to save translation costs. In this case, we check and revise your translation in terms of formalities only to comply with the JPO’s requirements, and basically submit the Japanese translation “as is” received. [Service resumed as of January 1, 2022.]
Premium
$
590
+Translation Fee
-
Work Product by Attorney
-
Save Prosecution Costs
-
PCT & Paris
recommend
As-Is
$
1200
only
-
Your Translation
-
Word Limit: 10,000
-
PCT only
save cost
02 patent translation
Choose Your Translation Plan
As to translation fees, we have introduced optional plans that you may choose. At our firm, patent attorneys specialized in the respective technical fields are in charge of translation services. If you wish to proceed with later prosecution smoothly (that means save subsequent prosecution costs) and to seek strong protection, we recommend our attorneys’ translation and proofreading before filing.
Although our translation fees are competitive, we understand that translation rates are basically expensive in Japan. Hence, if you wish to save costs at the filing stage, we offer AI translation services upon your request.
Premium
$
0.24
per English word
-
Full Translation by Attorney
-
Partner Proofread
-
Free Mistranslation Correction
recommend
Trial
$
0.10
per English word
-
AI Translation
-
Claims prepared by Attorney
-
Formality Revision
offer expired
03 patent prosecution
Choose Your Prosecution Plan
We have tried to offer as high quality and expedient services as possible, but at the same time, we wish to keep the costs to be charged to our clients to a minimum.
As to prosecution service fees, we basically charge hourly to maintain the best services, and we place a cap on our respective service fee. Meanwhile, if you wish to take the fixed fee plan, please explicitly instruct us to do so.
Hourly
for clients need detailed services
$
150
per hour (partner)
-
Full Services
-
Partner Attorney Work
-
OA Translation by Attorney
-
Cap on respective service
recommend
Fixed
for clients wish to save costs
$
550/1,400
per OA (non-subst./subst.)
-
Essential Services
-
Partner Attorney Work
-
OA Machine Translation
-
Flat Fee
save cost
04 trademark filing
Choose Your Filing Plan
At our firm, trademark attorneys translate goods and/or services to be designated. If you wish to proceed with later prosecution smoothly and to seek strong protection, we recommend our attorneys’ free translation. We will review and revise goods/services to comply with the JPO’s requirements and also incorporate additional goods/services if appropriate.
Meanwhile, we understand that some overseas clients wish to save costs at the filing stage. In this case, we translate goods/services literally “as-is” received. [As of February 1, 2021, this plan is no longer available.]
Premium
$
600
+ $ 450 / add'l class
-
Work Product by Attorney
-
Save Prosecution Costs
-
Goods/Services Revision
recommend
As-Is
$
450
per application
-
Work Product by Attorney
-
Literal Translation
-
Goods/Services As-Is Received
offer expired
05 Suspended Services
In order to focus on patent & trademark prosecution, we are sorry to say that we currently do not accept the following:
We are aware that there are some translation companies that offer inexpensive translation rates. In the past few years, we received 100+ PCT national phase entries for which Japanese translations were prepared by such companies and the clients asked us to submit the translations as received to avoid incurring any additional expenses. However, almost all of such translations were inferior in quality and did not satisfy the JPO’s formality requirements. We had to revise the Japanese translation regarding several garbled characters included therein, chemical formulae, and image file format, in order to satisfy the JPO’s formality requirements.
Under the circumstances, we no longer accept third party’s translations and prepare Japanese translations by ourselves, ensuring that future prosecution will be conducted smoothly and reliably.
We often receive requests to take over annuity payment, renewal, etc. However, we do not accept such services only, unless we handled the filing and/or prosecution. This is because we should be responsible for the possible future instances, such as invalidation trial, litigation, etc.
New cases are not currently being accepted.
New cases are not currently being accepted.
We Will Help You Every Step Of The Way
Check out our work
Fee Schedule
Please understand that we no longer prepare general schedule of services, since the official fees in Japan should change depending on various factors including filing date, filing route, number of claims, etc. Instead, we provide you with specific estimation for each case in advance.
Frequently Asked Questions
You will find answers to the questions we get asked the most about Japanese practice including PCT national phase, examination, response to office action, annuity, renewal, etc. If you have a question that you can’t find the answer to, please contact info@allegropat.com.
Quality Service Guarantee
We believe that Allegro IP is the sole boutique intellectual property law firm in Japan that offers foreign clients a quality service guarantee commitment. We have prided ourselves in high-quality services from the start of our firm and we are always trying to provide our best services to clients. However, if you find any unsatisfactory issues with our services, please request us to work over your cases as you deem necessary. At least two partner IP attorneys will review the case and try to follow your request as much as possible. We will of course absorb any additional expenses related to this service. It may be unfortunate for us to receive such a request, but we view our clients’ demands as opportunities to improve our services for future cases, and we hope that our clients will enjoy our services in the long term.