On April 24 and 25, 2014 (local time), the 22nd Annual Intellectual Property Law & Policy Conference was held at Fordham University School of Law in New York City, USA. Judge Tamotsu Shoji of the Tokyo District Court participated in this conference.

This international conference on intellectual property, which was hosted by Fordham University School of Law, celebrated its 22nd anniversary this year. It attracted more than 500 participants from 30 countries, including judges, government officials from patent offices and other organizations, lawyers, university professors, and relevant company representatives, all of whom are IP specialists. Speakers and panelists gave presentations and took part in panel discussions.

The Annual Conference was comprised of a Plenary Session in which all participants took part, and a number of Concurrent Sessions simultaneously held on various topics.
At the first part of the Plenary Session under the theme of "Multilateral/FTA Issues and Policy," representatives from the WTO and WIPO gave presentations and took part in panel discussions about handling intellectual property in international trade and agreements. Following this, at the second part of the session under the theme of "IP Leaders: Some Reflections," keynote speeches were given, focusing on the international directions of intellectual property in the future.
Presentations and discussions were also held at the Concurrent Sessions, which were divided into three major categories, namely, Patent Sessions, Copyright Sessions and Trademark Competition Sessions.

Judge Shoji participated as a speaker in a Patent Session titled "Global Patent Developments" and delivered a speech titled "Recent IP High Court Grand Panel Judgment regarding the method for calculating the amount of damages under Article 102, paragraph (2) of the Patent Act of Japan —Waste Storage Device Case—," in which he explained the IP High Court Grand Panel judgment handed down on February 1, 2013 (Waste Storage Device Case) by comparing it with rulings on similar cases rendered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). He also participated as a panelist together with IP judges from the U.K., the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, etc. in another Concurrent Session titled "A Conversation with Patent Judges," in which the main topic of discussion was how to deal with appraisers and expert witnesses in patent cases. In this session, he presented the current status in Japan, explaining how the judicial research officials system and the expert advisors system are working effectively in patent cases in place of the expert witnesses system.

A summary of Judge Shoji's speech is available here.PDF(99KB)