March 17, 2022
Mihoko Masaki

As a result of the Act on the Partial Revision of the Patent Act and Other Acts (Act No. 3 of May 17, 2019) having gone into effect on April 1, 2020 (excluding some provisions), graphic images, buildings, and interior designs became newly protectable under the Japanese Design Act.

Many design applicants have expressed interest in the current status of these design applications. The latest statistics from the JPO, dated March 11, 2022 are as follows:

(1) Number of design applications for newly protectable targets

 (The cases that can be confirmed as of March 1, 2022)

(2) Number of design registrations for newly protectable targets

 (The cases that can be confirmed as of March 1, 2022)

Furthermore, the JPO publishes reference examples of registered designs in these fields. From the links below, it is possible to further click on the design registration numbers to see the English translation of the design registration gazette via the J-PlatPat.

Examples of registered graphic image designs

https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/laws/rule/guideline/design/document/kaisei_hogo/gazo.pdf

Reg. No. 1672383	Reg. No. 1677889	Reg. No. 1678245

Examples of registered building designs

https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/laws/rule/guideline/design/document/kaisei_hogo/kenchiku.pdf

Reg. No. 1671773	Reg. No. 1673492	Reg. No. 1673701

Examples of registered interior designs

https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/laws/rule/guideline/design/document/kaisei_hogo/naiso.pdf

Reg. No. 1671153	Reg. No. 1671961	Reg. No. 1673700

• The number of applications in the above (1) includes the cases that are currently under examination. Therefore, “the number of registrations above / the number of applications above” is not indicative of the registration rate at the JPO.
• The number of JP national phase applications based on the Hague Agreement is not included.

Source:
https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/design/gaiyo/seidogaiyo/document/isyou_kaisei_2019/shutsugan-jokyo.pdf