The COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in 2020, served as a significant catalyst for large-scale departures from the Japanese traditional administrative culture, namely, ending the use of hanko seals on official paper documents.
Effective April 1, 2024, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) began providing digital certificates of registration only upon special request. If an applicant did not receive a certificate via the internet within 10 days of its upload to the JPO server, under the current practice, the JPO would send a printed certificate by mail.
The new law, which aims to promote further digitalization, will take effect on April 1, 2026.
- Under the new practice, if an applicant does not access the JPO server to download a certificate within 10 days of its upload, the certificate is presumed delivered after 10 days from the upload date. The JPO will not send a printed certificate by mail.
- After April 1, 2026, applicants who want to receive a printed certificate can do so by refraining from filing a request for online notification with the JPO. However, the new law requires trademark attorneys to receive all JPO notifications online. Therefore, after April 1, 2026, foreign applicants directly filing trademark applications with the JPO through a local attorney in Japan have no choice but to receive a digital certificate.
- The digital certificate would neither be reissued nor included in a file wrapper.
- If a foreign trademark owner still prefers a printed certificate, the JPO will reissue one upon receiving a written request and the official fee of JPY4,600 per certificate.
Even under the new law, certificates of registration in Japan via the Madrid Protocol are only issued on paper.