Nakamura & Partners

Nakamura & Partners was established on July 1 1914. Our firm is an international trademark, patent and law firm which provides a wide range of services in the field of intellectual property. Our firm aims to provide the highest level of professional services in IP rights and related legal matters, to meet clients’ needs and to build long-lasting and trustworthy relationships with our clients. Approximately 180 staff, including 70 patent and trademark attorneys and 20 attorneys at law, work at the firm.

Expert character

Our firm consists of three sections: a trademark section, a patent section and a legal section. Our trademark group has 10 trademark attorneys who handle trademark applications, oppositions and trials before the Japan Patent Office, and render expert opinions relating to trademark rights. Our patent group has 60 patent attorneys specialising in patent, utility model and design prosecution matters. Our legal group has 20 attorneys at law, handling a wide range of counselling and infringement litigations and other litigation relating to IP law, drafting and negotiations related to joint ventures, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, international business transactions and general corporate affairs.

Integration

In our firm, a close and effective cooperative relationship has been established between the patent and trademark attorneys groups and the legal group. Because of this relationship, our firm can simultaneously comply with clients’ requests, covering a wide range, from how to acquire strong exclusive rights to how to enforce exclusive rights effectively and deal with the related legal work.

International character

Approximately half of our clients are Japanese enterprises, while the other half are foreign enterprises. For clients in foreign countries, our firm has chiefly been engaged in work ranging from acquiring rights to enforcing those rights in Japan.

Tradition

Our firm was established in 1914, and so has a long history and tradition. Since it was established, the firm has continued to grow – the result of the high reputation and client confidence that the firm has acquired. It is also a result of the firm not being content with merely history and tradition, but rather always endeavouring to open a new page in its history and to create new traditions to comply with clients’ expectations. To this end, in future our firm will endeavour to continue to deal with any and all cases with the utmost sincerity and promptness.

Fostering talent

It is vital to foster the talents of our firm’s new members in order to maintain the high reputation and confidence which we now enjoy. To this end, our firm sends its more junior members to study at law schools abroad and to participate in academic meetings, seminars and symposia held abroad and in Japan, and has organised in-house study groups. Our firm has a high number of lawyers and patent attorneys who have studied in foreign countries. Some have been admitted to the Bar in the United States and some are qualified as US patent agents.

Our firm has received many legal awards and accolades in the IP field, from both the WTR 1000 and other publications (eg, Legal 500 (Asia-Pacific) every year since 1996 and Managing Intellectual Property magazine every year since 2005).

More information about the firm can be found at www.nakapat.gr.jp.