Patent System Day

What Is Patent System Day?

Every August 14th is "Patent System Day" (専売特許の日, Senbai Tokkyo no Hi) in Japan. On August 14, 1885, Japan's very first patents were granted under the Senbai Tokkyo Jōrei (専売特許条例, "Monopoly Patent Ordinance"), Japan's first full-fledged patent law, which had been promulgated on April 18 and took effect on July 1 that year. The system was a landmark in Japan's Meiji-era legal modernization: the establishment of a formal intellectual property system that would protect inventors and encourage innovation by granting creators exclusive commercial rights to their inventions for a limited period. April 18th, the day the ordinance was promulgated, is marked in Japan as "Invention Day," while August 14th marks the day the first patents were actually issued.

Japan's First Patent

The very first patent granted under Japan's new system — Patent No. 1, issued on August 14, 1885 — went to Hotta Zuishō (堀田瑞松), a sculptor and lacquer craftsman, for a rust-preventing paint for iron ships made with ingredients such as lacquer, together with its method of application. Seven patents in total were granted that day. Korekiyo Takahashi (高橋是清), who played a central role in creating the system and became the first head of the patent office, would later become one of Japan's most influential economic statesmen and eventually Prime Minister.

Japan as a Patent Powerhouse

Japan has been among the world's leading patent-filing nations for decades. The Japanese Patent Office (特許庁, JPO) regularly ranks among the top five patent offices globally by application volume, alongside the USPTO (US), EPO (Europe), CNIPA (China), and KIPO (Korea). Japanese companies — Sony, Toyota, Canon, Panasonic, Hitachi, and many others — hold enormous global patent portfolios, and Japan's manufacturing and technology sectors are built on a foundation of intellectual property development and protection.

Patent Culture in Japan

Japan has developed a distinctive patent culture in which companies invest heavily in broad patent portfolios as competitive assets, and engineers are expected to disclose inventions systematically. The inventor compensation system (職務発明制度, shokumuhatsumeiseido) — which provides financial rewards to employee inventors whose patents generate commercial value — has been a subject of significant legal development, including landmark court cases brought by inventors seeking larger shares of the value their patents created.

Fun Facts

• Blue LED patent dispute: Shuji Nakamura, inventor of the blue LED, famously sued his former employer Nichia Corporation for a larger share of the compensation for his invention — eventually reaching a court-mediated settlement of about 840 million yen including interest — in a case that prompted reform of Japan's inventor compensation laws.
• Patent term: Japanese patents are granted for 20 years from the filing date — the international standard established by the TRIPS Agreement — with pharmaceutical and agrochemical patents eligible for extensions of up to 5 years.