Nakamura & Partners

Nakamura & Partners is an international patent and law firm which provides a wide range of services in the field of intellectual property inside and outside Japan.

The history of Nakamura & Partners commenced on July 1, 1914 (the 3rd year of the Taisho era) when Morio NAKAMATSU, an attorney-at-law and patent attorney, opened Nakamatsu Patent & Law firm in the former Mitsubishi Building 21 famous for its red brick facade, on whose site the Shin Tokyo Building now stands, after serving as the 9th Commissioner of the former Japan Patent Bureau (currently the Japan Patent Office). Later the firm's name was changed to Nakamura and Partners when Minoru NAKAMURA (an attorney-at-law and patent attorney), who is also famous as a poet, began to act as a representative partner. Since then, the firm has been known as Nakamura & Partners. Shinichiro TANAKA (an attorney-at-law and patent attorney), Kazuhiko YOSHIDA (an attorney-at-law and patent attorney) and Hiroyuki SUDA (a patent attorney) are currently acting as representative partners.

At Nakamura & Partners, approximately 180 staff members, including about 60 patent attorneys and about 20 attorneys-at-law, work to provide various legal services. About 40 partners are involved in managing and supervising the firm.

Our services are mainly provided by the patent (including design) section, the trademark section, the legal section, and the administration group which supports the three sections. At our firm, partners in charge manage and supervise these sections to enhance the quality of our services and to achieve standardized quality in accordance with the fundamental purpose of "provide the highest level services and develop a very trustworthy relation with our clients."

Services provided by our patent attorneys include: agency services for actions such as applications and appeals/trials before the Japan Patent Office and overseas patent offices concerning industrial property rights such as patent rights (inventions), utility model rights (devices), design rights, trademark rights (trademarks and brand names); and related research and expert opinion. Our services further include agency services for actions such as applications for registration of new varieties of plant to be filed with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries under the Plant Variety Protection and Seed Act.

Services provided by our attorneys-at-law mainly cover counseling, expert opinion, litigations on infringement and the like in the field of intellectual property in a broad sense, such as industrial property rights, unfair competition prevention laws and copyrights, inside and outside Japan. Our services further cover: legal services related to international trade and transactions, such as license agreements and agreements on joint research and development; and legal services related to corporate laws in general.

One of the distinguishing features of our firm is that our patent attorneys and attorneys-at-law can simultaneously provide in a highly professional manner a variety of legal services through seamless and close cooperation with each other.