Masakazu KOBAYASHI (Mr.) is an attorney at law and patent attorney in our Legal Section with a specialty in patent law, trademark law, design law, copyright law, IT-related law, space law, and international transaction law. He earned a B.Eng. in Aerospace Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Tokyo and a M.Sc. in Advanced Energy from the Faculty of Frontier Science at The University of Tokyo. After graduation, he worked for the Japan Patent Office as an Examiner of patents related to automotive machinery for about seven years and graduated from Tsukuba University Law School while working at the JPO. He passed both the Bar Examination and the Japanese Patent Bar Examination and joined Nakamura & Partners. Further, he graduated from Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC) in Munich, Germany. Mr. Kobayashi has mainly handled many patent-related issues and lectured and written articles on a variety of IP topics.
Japanese, English and German
Membership and Activities:
Daini Tokyo Bar Association (2009-)
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (2009-)
Japan Patent Attorneys Association (2013-)
The Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences (2019-)
The Japan Space Law Association (2019-)
(written in English)
"Mechanical Properties of CFRP Laminates with embedded SMA foils" (joint authorship), Proceedings of the Second Asian-Australasian Conference on Composite Materials (2000)
"Case No. 36 Interpretation of Patent Claims - Literal Infringement - Disclaimed Element", Max Planck Series on Asian Intellectual Property Law, Japanese Patent Law Cases and Comments by Wolters Kluwer (2019)
(written in Japanese)
Aiming for Strong Patents, Intellectual Property Management, Vol. 63 No. 3 by JIPA (2013)
Trademark Legal Consultation Basics (joint authorship) by Dai-ichi Hoki (2019)
"A Patent Infringement Case Where the Application of the Doctrine of Equivalents Was Not Barred by a Claim Amendment Adding Features (Tokyo District Court, Date of the Judgement: 21 December 2018, Case No. 18184 (Wa) of 2017)", AIPPI (2019)
"Case of Direct Infringement by Defendant who Performs Only a Part of Process Invention – Method for Installing Handrails Case – ", Intellectual Property Management Vol.72 No. 73 (2022)
"Strong Patents and Patent Strategies", Johokiko (2011-)
"IP Law", "Civil Law", "Criminal Law", Tsukuba University Law School (2012-2016)
"IP Law Seminar", Tsukuba University Law School (2019-)
"IP and the Law - Patent Law and Utility Model Law", Tsukuba University (2020)
"IP and the Law - Design Law and Trademark Law", Tsukuba University (2020)
"How to Analyze Competitors' Patents and Apply it to Your Own R&D and Patent Applications", R&D Support Center (2020-)
"Frequently Encountered Issues in Patent Practice", the 12th Tohoku University Intellectual Property Seminar (2021)
