Rights, by Design

Rights at the core of the business, designed from strategy.

From patent, design and trademark filings to urgent cases, second opinions and enforcement. We take on every part of your day-to-day IP work in the context of your business. This is the core practice of IPX.

Philosophy

Not scattered filings. A designed field of rights.

Preparing documents exactly as instructed is only half of our work. Where does this one case protect the business, and where can it extend? The quality of a single specification decides your bargaining power ten years from now. That is how we think, and that is why we design rights as a field rather than as isolated points.

What We Do

Six Services

Patents

We turn the inventions at the core of your business into the language of rights, in any field. Software and AI, mechanical, chemistry and materials: a specialist team covers each. Just before an exhibition or a release, Same-Day Filing is also available.

See how Same-Day Filing works

Designs

From product shapes to UI and image designs. Rights that protect the ground between technology and brand.

Trademarks

Company names, product names, logos. The first IP for any company, protecting what the business is called.

Second Opinion

Even if you already work with a patent attorney or firm. We provide a third-party assessment of filing strategy, office action responses and portfolio building.

Enforcement

Enforcement, responses to warning letters, disputes. Working with your legal counsel, we support the stage where the rights you hold are put to use.

Search & Analysis

Prior art searches before filing, freedom-to-operate searches before entering a market, invalidity searches in a dispute. And IP landscaping that reads competitors and market gaps out of patent information. With AI, the volume, the range and the speed of what we can read have all changed.

See Search & Analysis

Same-Day Filing

In time, even the day before you go public. Same-Day Filing.

Once an invention is announced or published, as a rule a patent can no longer be obtained (novelty, first-to-file). Even just before an exhibition, a conference or a release, domestic priority lets us file on the day you ask. The basic filing is completed that day, and content can be added later.

Same day

Basic filing

The minimum A, filed the same day.

We file that day, with content that makes your announcement date.

Up to 12 months

Priority-claiming filing

A plus a1, a2 and a3.

We file again, adding unpublished content and specific configurations.

Conditions apply, including the time a request is received and the state of your materials. The priority-claiming filing must be made within 12 months of the basic filing. Please contact us as early as you can, once your schedule comes into view.

First-to-File

Patents go to whoever files first. One day is about 1,000 filings.

This is a first-to-file world: for the same invention, whoever files first wins. In Japan, about 1,000¹ patent and utility model applications are filed every day. If your filing date slips by one day, about 1,000 earlier applications pile up ahead of your own. Speed is power.

Bar chart showing how many patent and utility model applications are filed ahead of yours for each day of delay: about 1,000 in one day, 3,000 in three days, 7,000 in one week, 14,000 in two weeks and 30,000 in one month.

FIRST-TO-FILE — one day is about 1,000 filings

1.An approximate figure, obtained by dividing the 358,317 patent applications and 4,768 utility model applications of 2025 (Japan Patent Office, Annual Report on the Intellectual Property System 2026) by 365 days.

From XXTech to Academic Study

A specialist team for every field of knowledge.

From software, AI and electronics to chemistry and materials and academic research. A specialist team for each technical area can discuss your work in the language of that field.

See all the fields we cover

How It Works

How to Work With Us

01
First consultation
We ask about the issue and the business behind it. At this stage we confirm confidentiality and check for conflicts of interest.
02
Strategy and quote
We set out the aim of securing rights and the options open to you, and propose them together with the costs.
03
Kickoff and drafting
The specialist team prepares the application documents. Through repeated discussion with your engineers, we put the core of the invention into words.
04
Filing and prosecution
We stay with the case through examination after filing, including responses to office actions.
05
Registration and use
Registration is a starting point, not a goal. We keep designing the field through use, maintenance and the next filing.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost?

It depends on the matter, including the type of right, the technical field and how urgent it is. We hear your aims at the first consultation and always present a quote before starting work. No fees arise before the quote.

Can I consult you about a matter another firm is handling?

Yes. As a second opinion, we provide third-party assessments of filing strategy, office action responses and portfolios. You can also consult us on the basis that you keep your current representative.

Can I ask for urgent handling or Same-Day Filing at any time?

It is available for patents only, and requests are accepted until noon. Depending on how busy we are, we may not be able to take it on. Please contact us as soon as an exhibition or an announcement comes into view. We will propose the options for making the date.

Do you handle foreign filings?

Yes. Working with our network of foreign associates, we support foreign filings and prosecution in each country.