Akira Tanji
Senior CounselPractice Areas
Education
M.S., Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University
Professional Background
34 years’ experience at the JPO, 1983 - 2017
・ Examiner and Administrative Judge, 1983 - 2004
・ First Secretary, Embassy of Japan (India), 1994 - 1997
・ Director, 2004 - 2010
・ Deputy Director-General of the 4th Patent Examination Department, 2010 - 2011
・ Chief Judicial Research Official, Intellectual Property High Court, 2011 - 2014
・ Director of the 32nd Board of Trial and Appeal (Information Storage), 2014 - 2015
・ Executive Chief Administrative Judge, 2015 - 2017
Committee Member of Patent Attorney Qualifying Examination for Patents and Utility Models, 2020
Expertise
Prosecution, opinions, trials for invalidation, and suits against trial decisions.
Languages
English
Mr. Tanji specializes in information processing, telecommunications, and image processing. During his tenure at the JPO, he worked extensively on patent examinations and appeal/trial examinations in the field of information and telecommunications, and was responsible for reviewing the patent examination guidelines for computer software and explaining the guidelines to others. While Chief Judicial Research Official of the Intellectual Property High Court, Mr. Tanji was involved in appeal cases concerning suits against appeal/trial decisions, as well as patent infringement litigation. His experience as Executive Chief Administrative Judge included investigating important cases and coordinating direction of suits against appeal/trial decisions.
