ohibited, while local copies are produced and marketed at much lower prices than those demanded for their American counterparts.4 In such instances, American patents are simply ignored. Cases in Japan where patent infringement is charged, however, are far more complicated and subtle.
Underlying the differences in the patent laws of the United States and Japan are the philosophical differences between the two countries in the ways in which they approach the conduct of industrial business the industrial policies of the countries.
American industrial policy, unlike that of Japan's or Germany's,
is mostly uncoordinated, and is often shrouded in rhetoric
to disguise its true character. By contrast, industrial
policy in Japan and Germany is overt and recognizable as such.
In both Japan and Germany, government is an active partner along
with industry and finance in the coordination of industrial
planning. A coordinated plan is developed and implemented to
attain specified long term goals. This type of coordination and
planning is absent in the United States.
When industrial policy is translated into patent law in Japan, the result is quite different from American patent law. The objective of American patent law is "to protect and reward individual entrepreneurs and innovative businesses, to encourage innovation and the advancement of knowledge."5 By contrast, the objective of Japanese patent law is to promote the sharing of technology.6 Sharing technology implies that innovation will not be protected, as such protection is understood in the United States. Beyond the objective of assuring the sharing of technology, Japanese patent law is designed to encourage the "rapid spread of technological know how among competitors in a manner that avoids litigation, encourages broad scale cooperation, and promotes Japanese industry as a whole."7
There are other important differences ...