About
The firm: SUGIMURA & Partners is a leading intellectual property law firm in Japan. The firm was founded in 1923 initially as SUGIMURA International Patent & Trademark Attorneys, and has been relaunched as of 1 March 2017 as SUGIMURA & Partners, with enhancement of its legal services. SUGIMURA has earned a reputation for high quality and is repeatedly ranked among the top Japanese patent and trade mark firms. It has offices in Japan and the US, providing convenient IP services to both domestic and international clients. Areas of practice: SUGIMURA represents Japanese and international clients in patent, design, and trade mark prosecution, trial and appeal proceedings before the JPO, counseling and opinion work, due diligence, unfair competition and litigation and dispute resolution matters in Japan. The firm’s clientele ranges from single inventors and start-ups, to well established academic institutions and multinational corporations from all sectors of the global economy. SUGIMURA delivers results-oriented solutions and offers customised services tailored to clients’ needs. It ensures close collaboration among its practice groups in order to provide clients with comprehensive multidisciplinary patent and trade mark protection across industry sectors. SUGIMURA’s attorneys combine legal insight, technical expertise, and business acumen to deliver practical solutions and strategies for intellectual property protection in Japan. SUGIMURA has earned an international reputation for quality in Japanese IP practice and is repeatedly ranked among top Japanese patent and trade mark law firms. Its patent and trade mark attorneys possess expertise in virtually every technology sector. SUGIMURA’s attorneys are not only skilled in the nuances of intellectual property laws and regulations; they are also technical experts in virtually every industry. SUGIMURA’s attorneys have years of experience working in-house at major corporations as researchers, engineers, and IP professionals. SUGIMURA also has attorneys who have served for decades at the Japanese Patent Office (JPO). This combination of expertise allows it to understand the perspectives of corporations and patentees as well as the JPO, enabling it to deliver practical and effective solutions to further client’s business objectives. In order to better serve its foreign clients, SUGIMURA established a regional office in Palo Alto, California, the heart of Silicon Valley. Having a US presence allows SUGIMURA to offer better accessibility covering a wider range of time zones for foreign clients. SUGIMURA’s Silicon Valley and Tokyo offices work together seamlessly to deliver tailored solutions and around-the-clock service. SUGIMURA’s attorneys are active in their community, presenting on topics regarding Japanese IP practice at in-house client presentations, patent seminars, and law school classes. The firm also publishes articles on Japanese IP practice in magazines distributed around the world. ### Languages - English - German - Japanese - Mandarin ### Memberships - Japan Patent Attorneys Association (JPAA) - Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA) - Associaion Internationale pour la Protections de la Propri?t? Intellectuelle (AIPPI) - Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA) - F?d?ration Internationale de Conseils en Propri?t? Industrielle (FICPI) - International Trademark Association (INTA) ### Staffing Figures - 1 Patent Attorney / Attorney at law - 65 Patent Attorneys - 1 UK/EP Patent Attorney - 1 Japanese Patent Attorney/U.S. Patent Agent - 1 U.S. Patent Attorney - 2 U.S. Attorneys - 1 U.S. Patent Agent
Office locations
Tokyo
Tokyo
SUGIMURA & Partners Common Gate West Tower 36th Floor 3-2-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-0013 Tokyo Japan
Practice areas
Lawyers in this office
Haruo Awano
Mr Awano is a director of Intellectual Property Operation. His practice encompasses patent prosecution in the electrical, mechanical, and material science fields. Mr Awano has particular expertise in the areas of storage technology and optical devices. · Intellectual Property
Kazuyuki Tomita
Mr. Tomita is one of SUGIMURA’s Executive Directors, overseeing the Patent Prosecution Department of our firm and leads our chemical and material science groups. Mr. Tomita brings a wealth of experience in patent prosecution to the firm, having handled more than one thousand patent applications from domestic and foreign clients. His expertise cover all chemical technologies, and he has drafted and prosecuted hundreds of patent applications in various bio-chemical and material science fields, including, but not limited to, organic synthesis, fuel cells, batteries, lubricant oils, petroleum refineries, rubber compositions, reinforcement cords for tires, and carbon fiber. · Intellectual Property
Ken Nakayama
Mr Nakayama is the Director of Intellectual Property Operations. He is a distinguished trademark and unfair competition law practitioner, representing both foreign and Japanese corporate clients in the procurement and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Mr Nakayama is an invaluable member of SUGIMURA and brings with him a wealth of practical knowledge and experience regarding Japanese and international trademark practice. His practice spans the entire spectrum of trademark protection from filing and prosecution to enforcement, arbitration and litigation. He has represented companies in a wide range of industries such as entertainment, electronics, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and apparel in the filing and prosecution of trademark applications, opposition and cancellation actions before the Japan Patent Office. He also represents clients before the Tokyo District Court, the Intellectual Property High Court, the Japan Intellectual Property Arbitration Center, and WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center for trademark matters, including domain name disputes. Mr Nakayama has extensive experience assisting companies in the enforcement of their trademark rights against counterfeits through Japanese customs and the Japanese police. Notably, Mr. Nakayama has been named a leading lawyer as one of the world’s leading trademark professionals in Japan by World Trademark Review 1000 for four consecutive years since 2011. He has also been listed in Chambers Asia-Pacific, Chambers Global, Managing Intellectual Property and Legal 500 Asia Pacific. · Intellectual Property
Kenji Sugimura
Mr Sugimura is a Managing Partner of the firm. As an experienced Japanese patent attorney and litigator specialising in mechanics and architectural engineering, he is actively involved in IP organizations, such as AIPPI, APAA, FICPI, INTA, and the JPAA. He currently serves as a member of the board of FICPI-Japan and on JPAA’s International Activities Center subcommittee. Mr Sugimura has authored several articles on Japanese IP practice in international IP magazines. His writings focus on new changes and trends in Japanese IP practice, general differences between Japanese IP practice and IP practices in the US and Europe, and industry specific opportunities within the Japanese IP market. · Intellectual Property
Koji Sugimura
Koji Sugimura is one of the managing partners of SUGIMURA & Partners. His practice encompasses all aspects of intellectual property, including transactions (eg, licensing, joint research and development and mergers and acquisitions) and disputes (eg, infringement actions, invalidation procedures and arbitration). Mr Sugimura counsels clients on all forms of intellectual property – including patents, trademarks, design patents, trade secrets and copyright – and also advises on adjacent areas of the law, such as information technology, personal data and privacy, media and entertainment. · Intellectual Property
Yuko Muramatsu
Ms Muramatsu is a head of trademarks and designs. Her practice encompasses prosecution, negotiation, litigation, arbitration, and border enforcement of designs and trademarks. Ms Muramatsu oversees all trademark and design cases, including the filing of trademark cases in over 160 countries and regions and design cases in over 20 countries and regions. She conducts in-house presentations for clients concerning Japanese IP protections and counsels clients on IP strategy. · Intellectual Property