IP High Court Chief Judge Ryuichi Shitara participated in the 2014 High Technology Protection Summit held in Seattle, Washington, USA, on July 25 and 26, 2014. This international conference was hosted by the Center for Advanced Study and Research on Intellectual Property (CASRIP), a research institute affiliated with the University of Washington.

Chief Judge Shitara took part in the panel discussion entitled "Challenging Validity at Patent Offices and Civil Action in EU and Asia," which formed part of the session entitled "Patent Enforcement Strategy." Judge Huei-ju Tsai from the Intellectual Property Court of Taiwan, and Mr. Shunichi Doi, the Director-General of the Trial and Appeal Department of the Japan Patent Office (JPO), also participated in this discussion. Chief Judge Shitara spoke about the Japanese patent invalidation trial system, the relationship and differences between the invalidation trial procedure before the JPO and the defense of invalidity in patent infringement litigation, and the status of current practices in this area.

A summary of speech is available here.(PDF:1070KB)