A I P P I - Japan delegates

Richard Beem, principal of Beem Patent Law Firm and member of the Executive Committee of the U.S. Group of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI-US), recently hosted Mr. Kensuke UMEYAMA and Mr. Keiji IWATA from AIPPI-JAPAN, for a discussion of the little-known “secret patent” practice, rules, regulations, and federal statutes in the United States.  Messrs. Umeyama and Iwata visited and interviewed leading patent attorneys around the world in their research and investigation of “secret patents” for AIPPI-JAPAN.  For their visit in the U.S., Messrs. Umeyama and Iwata selected and met exclusively with Mr. Beem for their investigation of U.S. law and practice pertaining to secret patent applications, i.e., those involving technology affecting U.S. national security. AIPPI-JAPAN, with professional staff about 30 highly trained personnel, is the largest national group of AIPPI in the world, and is highly respected in Japan and worldwide for its research, analysis and publications.  Previously, a little more than one year ago, Mr. Beem visited the offices of AIPPI-JAPAN in Tokyo, where he met with the Director and the Secretary, and was honored with a private reception and tour of the Japanese Patent Office.  Mr. Beem brought back to AIPPI-US a favorable report of the activity of AIPPI-JAPAN, which report Mr. Beem presented to the 2007 annual meeting of the U.S. national group (AIPPI-US).  The Japanese Patent Office, along with the European Patent Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is among the leading patent offices of the world, as indicated by number of filings and other measures.  AIPPI-JAPAN will publish the work of Messrs. Umeyama and Iwata, concerning their worldwide comparative study of “secret patents” under the various patent systems of the world, including information provided by Mr. Beem, in the near future.