Who should sign a Power of Attorney document to be submitted to the Japan Patent Office?

As you may already know, the Japan Patent Office (“JPO”) has relaxed the procedural requirements for a Power of Attorney (“POA”).  Under the current Japanese practice, it is no longer necessary to file an original copy of the signed document for most procedures (except for assignment, etc.).  Even an electronic copy of a POA document with the name of the signatory typed in is acceptable.  

See below for more details on current practices:

Japanese New Practice regarding Power of Attorney – Japanese Patent Attorneys | Allegro IP

However, we have recently encountered situations where Formalities Examiners reject POAs for overseas applicants’ cases.  Although the JPO has not officially announced stricter procedural requirements, we anticipate that we may face a similar situation more frequently and would like to change our practice as follows.

1) Previous Practice:

In principle, the JPO basically requires that the signatory of a POA should be the representative of a company (typically a “Representative Director”) (as explained above, a handwritten signature is not required, but a typed name is acceptable).  Please note that this principle is strictly applied to Japanese applicants.

Meanwhile, in the case of an overseas applicant, the JPO has not strictly applied this principle because it is difficult for them to determine whether the signatory is actually a representative of the company or not.  Accordingly, overseas applicants have traditionally filed POAs in which the signatory is not a “Representative Director” but an “officer” (such as IP head, director, etc.), and such documents have not caused any problems over the past decades.

2) Recent Problems:

However, we have recently received notices from several Formalities Examiners that they do not accept a POA signed by an “officer” because it cannot be determined whether the officer is actually authorized by the representative to sign the document.  We have discussed this matter several times with the Examiners, but unfortunately, some of them strictly require that the signatory be the “Representative Director” on the POA.

3) New Practice (effective as of January 1, 2025):

Under the above circumstances, if and when we provide you with a POA document, we ask that you fill in the name of the “Representative Director” of the applicant as the signatory.  If you prefer that the signatory be an “officer” in the customary way, please do so.  We will submit the POA as received along with its Japanese translation.  This is due to the fact that some (and most) Formalities Examiners still accept such traditional POAs, and the JPO has not officially announced a practice change as explained above.  Please note, however, that a Formalities Examiner might issue a notice later stating that such a POA should be rejected.  In that case, we will have to resubmit a POA with the name of the “Representative Director”.

We believe the above comments will be clear to you.  Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.