The Japan Patent Office (JPO) operates the Information Provision System, which allows third parties to submit information relevant to the patentability such as novelty and inventive step of an invention, both during the patent examination process and after a patent has been granted. Submissions can be made anonymously.

In recent years, approximately 5,000 submissions have been received, and in about 70% of cases, the documents provided are cited in office actions as prior art. This system helps ensure timely and accurate patent examinations and efficient post-grant proceedings based on thoroughly collected patent documents.

If you are aware of prior art that may affect the patentability of a pending application, we encourage you to consider utilizing this system to help prevent the grant of patents.

Please refer to the following link for more details (only in Japanese):

https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/patent/shinsa/johotekyo/index.html