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JPO Japan (JP) — national
Layer national
Jurisdiction JP (WIPO ST.3: JP)
Issuing body Japan Patent Office (特許庁 / Tokkyochō)
Rights administered patent, utility_model, trademark, design
Working languages Japanese (primary); English (partial via JPlatPat EN + JPO English site)
Connector status active (BYOK)
Last verified 2026-05-16

Manifest entries:

  • JP/JPO — patent_client_agents.jpo

Detail surveys:

  • No standalone connectors/jpo.md exists — coverage is established and the connector is operational.

Higher / sibling layers carrying overlapping data:

  • EPO INPADOC — JP patent biblio + family (INPADOC has strong JP coverage); legal events partial
  • WIPO Madrid — international TMs designating JP (JP is a Madrid member since 2000)
  • WIPO Hague — international designs designating JP (JP is a Hague member since 2015)
  • WIPO PATENTSCOPE — JP-filed PCT applications + JP-designated national-phase records

Rating: 🟢 Green

Free with credentials (JPO_API_USERNAME + PASSWORD); BYOK pattern Jump to access details → View on the atlas →

§1 Mission

JPO is one of the IP5 offices — the third-largest patent office in the world by recent application volume. Japan administers all four traditional registered IP rights from one agency. JPO's online search system (J-PlatPat) is the consumer-facing UI; the JPO API for developers is the programmatic surface used by our connector.

For agents working on Japanese prior art, prosecution, or post-grant review, JPO is the authoritative source for Japanese-language full text and JP-specific procedural events. EPO INPADOC substitutes for JP patent biblio + family at the regional layer.

§2 What's unique here

  • Japanese-language patent full text (EPO OPS full-text doesn't cover JP applications in native Japanese for the most part)
  • Real-time JP patent prosecution status (vs. INPADOC's lag)
  • JP utility models — Japan is a top global jurisdiction for UM filings
  • National-only JP trademarks — not in Madrid IRs
  • National-only JP designs — not in Hague IRs
  • JP-specific procedural events — opposition, invalidation trials
  • PCT national-phase number lookup — JPO assigns its own national-phase number; we expose get_jpo_pct_national_phase_number
  • JPO Applicant Identification — Japanese applicant codes ↔ name lookups

§3 Programmatic surfaces

JPO API for developers

Field Value
Endpoint JPO API gateway (Japanese government infrastructure)
Auth Username + password (account-based) — JPO_API_USERNAME + JPO_API_PASSWORD
Format JSON / XML (varies per endpoint)
Rate limit Account-tier-specific; not fully published
ToS posture Permissive for proxy with proper credentials (per existing connector ToS handling)
Verdict (zero-infra proxy) 🟢 Green — operational

Important operational note: JPO origin server filters Cloud Run egress harder than residential IPs — same egress pattern as USPTO TESS. Test JPO API access per deployment; some research has had to route through web.archive.org when direct JPO origin is blocked.

J-PlatPat web UI

Field Value
Endpoint https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/
Auth none (some advanced features session-based)
Format HTML
ToS posture UI use only; not the recommended path
Verdict 🔴 Red for scraping

We expose a helper get_jpo_jplatpat_url(application_number) for direct URL construction without scraping.

§4 Fees

JPO publishes patent, trade mark, and design fee schedules in JPY. Patent annuities and examination requests are claim-count-dependent at every band — a structural quirk worth knowing when modeling prosecution cost.

  • Official schedule (EN): JPO fee schedule
  • Statutory basis: Patent Act, Utility Model Act, Design Act, and Trademark Act, with fees set in supplementary tables.

§5 Access via patent-client-agents

What we cover today

The full set: - get_jpo_progress / get_jpo_progress_simple — application status - get_jpo_applicant_by_code / get_jpo_applicant_by_name — applicant lookups - get_jpo_patent_cited_documents — citation data - get_jpo_patent_divisional_info — divisional family - get_jpo_priority_info — priority chain - get_jpo_pct_national_phase_number — PCT → JP national-phase mapping - get_jpo_number_reference — number-system conversions - get_jpo_registration_info — registration record - get_jpo_documents — document retrieval - get_jpo_jplatpat_url — direct URL construction

All env-gated on JPO_API_USERNAME + JPO_API_PASSWORD.

What we should improve

  • §5.9 envelope sweep — completed 2026-05-15 ✅. Including the get_jpo_applicant_by_* collapse to a single tool and get_jpo_jplatpat_url / get_jpo_number_reference first-sentence rewrites.
  • Cloud Run egress — see operational note in §3; per-deployment verification.

Template value

JPO is the canonical BYOK template for username+password auth (versus IP Australia's OAuth2 BYOK). Both patterns coexist in the codebase. KIPO BYOK will resemble JPO architecturally (per-user API key on every call, no OAuth dance) rather than IP Australia's pattern.

§6 Known unknowns

  • JPO API access tier limits — not fully published; relevant for capacity planning if user demand scales.
  • JPO Cloud Run egress — confirmed blocked from our standard cloud network; recommend documenting per-deployment workaround.
  • 2022-04-01 fee schedule freshness — the schedule has been stable for 4+ years; next revision date not announced.

§7 References

Primary sources only.

APIs + portals:

Fees:

Substantive law:

Detail in this repo:

  • src/patent_client_agents/mcp/tools/international.py — JPO MCP tools (§5.9 envelope, ✅)
  • CONNECTOR_STANDARDS.md — connector contract

Last updated 2026-05-16.