From November 10 to 12, 2021, Judge ASAI Ken of the IP High Court participated in the 2021 WIPO Intellectual Property Judges Forum held as a video conference.
The Forum is held annually to provide a platform for judges from across the globe to exchange their expertise on the most pressing intellectual property challenges raised by the accelerating innovation and increasingly transnational use of intellectual property. 27 moderators or speakers who are current and former judges from 18 countries attended the Forum.
Judge Asai participated in the session titled "Patent Invalidity/Nullification Proceedings" as a speaker. In the session, panel discussions were held on issues including the timing and procedures to address the question of patent invalidity, the time limit for challenging the validity of a patent, claim construction in administrative and judicial review, consideration of unpredictable results of an invention, and evidentiary weight of technical reports in nullification proceedings. Judge Asai explained the Japanese legal framework and court decisions concerning the procedures to challenge the validity of a patent, claim construction in patent nullification proceedings and the consideration of unpredictable results of an invention, and actively exchanged opinions with other panelists on the abovementioned issues.