ABOUT US

The goal of Kisaragi Associates (referred to below as "Kisaragi") is:

allowing our patent attorneys with a spirit of craftsmanship to participate in management of Kisaragi and to blush up their skill of management;

helping individual patent attorneys to display their abilities to the utmost degree, through cooperative participation in management; and

then contributing to advancing our clients' IP strategies and maximizing our clients' profits.

"Kisaragi" believes that individual patent attorneys must have a broad knowledge in intellectual property, and, at the same time, be "craftsmen" having a deep knowledge in a specific field. "Kisaragi" also believes that it is the responsibility of those individual patent attorneys to blush up their expertise to become "master craftsmen".

However, it is difficult for one patent attorney to be an excellent "craftsman" and as an excellent "manager" at the same time. There is a tendency, when one patent attorney runs a IP law firm alone, he or she tends to be compelled to deal with every IP cases in a broad and shallow manner to meet the wide-ranging needs of his or her clients. Moreover, he or she tends to be snowed under indirect management tasks, making it difficult for him or her to improve his or her expertise.

"Kisaragi" is a "group of craftsmen" comprising a number of patent attorneys with expertise of various fields. Moreover, "Kisaragi" is a unique IP law firm, where many patent attorneys participate in management of "Kisaragi" as "partners".

Management meetings are held periodically among the partners, and the partners exchange opinions to participate cooperatively in the management of "Kisaragi". That is, plural patent attorney as craftsmen also participate cooperatively in management while blushing up their skills as "craftsmen". Accordingly, the individual patent attorneys are allowed to display their skills to the maximum, and our patent attorneys as a group are enabled to provide an integrated IP service together.

In view of the above, emphasis is placed on the following points at Kisaragi Associates.

(1) Provide environment for allowing sufficient display of patent attorneys' expertise

At Kisaragi Associates, a number of "partners" share various management resources and cooperate with each other in an effort to maintain and improve those resources. This allows efficiency of clerical work to be improved and allows the individual "partners" to enjoy environment in which they can devote themselves to their own activities for improving their expertise.

(2) Create organization with a balance of responsibility/authority/cooperation

In order to play a key role in intellectual property strategy, it is important not only that the individual patent attorneys each acquire a business sense, but also that they form an organization having a rapid-response structure.

"Kisaragi"includes several "partner" patent attorneys, together with so-called "associate" patent attorneys. We encourage the "associate" patent attorneys to aspire to become "partners"in the future.

Several "partners" in "Kisaragi" share responsibility and authority, while they cooperate for improving management resources of "Kisaragi". This is why "Kisaragi" can be an organization with 0rapid-response and flexibility. Cooperation among several "partners" can assure continuity of services to our clients.

(3) Provision of total intellectual property consulting

To obtain worthwhile intellectual property rights, it is not sufficient simply to carry out the procedures for granting of a patent, rather, a total intellectual property strategy including unearthing of inventions and enforcing or licensing patent rights.

At Kisaragi Associates, individual patent attorneys conduct total consulting related to clients' intellectual property, and protection of the clients' intellectual property is supported through the provision of a survey section run by our patent attorneys with expertise in such surveys.

(4) Skilling-up through in-house training

At Kisaragi Associates, emphasis is placed on in-house training directed to our patent attorneys and staff. In addition, We timely share new information such as new laws or rules, new case law, revisions of examination guidelines and the like among our members, by updating it in our in-house database or by having in-house seminars. By such means, we constantly try to improve our knowledges as a whole.

(5) Building-up of overseas network

Kisaragi Associates has established a network with 30 countries and 120 IP law firms throughout the world. This means we are well-equipped to function as a hub office for gaining patent rights, solving disputes, and so on, outside of Japan.

The highest decision-making organization in Kisaragi Associates is the partner meeting. This allows Kisaragi to work both flexibly and powerfully.