{"id":3321,"date":"2025-12-11T15:35:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/?p=3321"},"modified":"2025-12-11T15:35:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:35:58","slug":"%e7%94%a3%e6%a5%ad%e8%b2%a1%e7%94%a3%e6%a8%a9%e3%81%ae%e4%be%b5%e5%ae%b3%e3%81%a8%e5%88%91%e4%ba%8b%e7%bd%b0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/en\/en-trademarks\/%e7%94%a3%e6%a5%ad%e8%b2%a1%e7%94%a3%e6%a8%a9%e3%81%ae%e4%be%b5%e5%ae%b3%e3%81%a8%e5%88%91%e4%ba%8b%e7%bd%b0\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminal Penalties for Infringement of Industrial Property Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Legal measures available against industrial property rights infringement typically include civil claims such as injunctions, claims for damages, restitution of unjust enrichment, and measures to restore business credibility. However, from the perspective of deterrence and long-term prevention, criminal liability may also be pursued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">To enhance the international competitiveness of Japanese industries, it has been considered necessary to strengthen the protection of industrial property rights. Consequently, legislative amendments have been introduced repeatedly to increase criminal penalties, including raising fines and expanding imprisonment provisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Among industrial property rights infringements, trademark infringement is said to be the most frequently prosecuted as a criminal offense. The Trademark Act provides criminal penalties for infringement as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Article 78\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000Any person who infringes a trademark right or an exclusive right to use (excluding a person who commits an act deemed to constitute infringement under Article 37 or Article 67) shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding <strong>ten years<\/strong> or a fine not exceeding <strong>ten million yen<\/strong>, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Article 78-2\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000Any person who commits an act deemed to constitute infringement of a trademark right or an exclusive right to use under Article 37 or Article 67 shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding <strong>five years<\/strong>, or a fine not exceeding <strong>five million yen<\/strong> or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Likewise, the Patent Act provides:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Article 196\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000Any person who infringes a patent right or an exclusive license (other than a person who commits an act deemed to constitute infringement under Article 101) shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding <strong>ten years<\/strong> or a fine not exceeding <strong>ten million yen<\/strong>, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Article 196-2\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000\u3000Any person who commits an act deemed to constitute infringement of a patent right or an exclusive license under Article 101 shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding <strong>five years <\/strong>or a fine not exceeding <strong>five million yen<\/strong>, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">With respect to criminal offenses related to intellectual property rights, there are both \u201c<strong>offenses prosecuted only upon complaint<\/strong>\u201d (shinkokuzai) and \u201c<strong>offenses prosecuted without a complaint<\/strong>\u201d (hi-shinkokuzai). Infringement of patents and trademarks falls into the latter category, meaning that prosecution is possible even without a complaint from the rights holder. Nevertheless, filing a formal complaint is necessary in practice to prompt investigative authorities to take active steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">For further information regarding infringement and available remedies, please refer to the Japan Patent Office (JPO) website:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u201cWhat constitutes infringement of industrial property rights?\u201d\u3000<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpo.go.jp\/support\/ipr\/kenrishingai.html\">https:\/\/www.jpo.go.jp\/support\/ipr\/kenrishingai.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cIf your rights are infringed \u2013 available remedies\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpo.go.jp\/support\/ipr\/kyusai\/index.html\">https:\/\/www.jpo.go.jp\/support\/ipr\/kyusai\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legal measures available against industrial property rights infringement typically include civil claims such as injunctions, claims for damages, restitution of unjust enrichment, and measures to restore business credibility. However, from the perspective of deterrence and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/?p=3298","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en-patents","category-en-trademarks","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3322,"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321\/revisions\/3322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sakae-pat.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}