Consecutive Leaderships in the Number of “Utility Model” Applications in Japan
(Source: Chizai Labo- Intellectual Property Laboratory)
Do you know how many countries adopt the utility model system?
Currently, the system is used in 93 countries in the world.
Among these countries, over 1000 utility model applications are filed in a year in Australia, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan, Turkey and Ukraine, among others (as of the year 2014).
For many years, Yamaguchi & Associates has been entrusted to file utility model applications to the Japan Patent Office from our clients in those many countries.
As a result, in the years 2013~2017 in a row, Yamaguchi & Associates filed The greatest number of Utility Model applications among 1,000 patent offices in Japan (for the preceding years, no data available).
Our office is staffed with only 20 employees including three patent lawyers. Indeed, we are surprised to know that we handle The greatest number of Utility Model applications in Japan.
So, what does “the number one” mean ?
What does it have to do with our clients ?
We had no idea, but the answer was found in the following email from a manager of one of our client companies :
Please allow me to congratulate you on your becoming the clear number one in the ranking of utility model applications according to intellectual property database. I think such a runaway leadership is achievable only when by far the best performance, confidence, trust, security, transparent pricing, and follow-up services come together. Since number never lies, I strongly believe that it will serve as a great advantage for your practice. We are also proud of being able to do business with a number-one patent office like yours. Best wished for your continuous growth in future. |
He may be complimenting too much, but we realize that our proper and prompt work has led to such an appreciation.
All our staff members will stay focused and keep working hard, being conscious of that the number demonstrates the appreciation of our fine-tuned services, which large-scale patent offices would be unable to provide.