In 2004, bench trials were centralized, requiring complaints to be filed in Tokyo or Osaka district court. Previously, patent litigation could be filed in any district. April 2005 saw the rise of the Intellectual Property High Court (IPHC), created in response to clamor by the business community for more intelligent handling of the complex technologies involved in patent litigation. IPHC has 18 judges, and over 100 technical experts on call. IPHC was modeled on Britian's similar IP High Court.

The effect has been to accelerate the docket, but douse plaintiffs. An unofficial estimate by local patent attorneys is that only about 15% of enforcement actions succeed. It used to be that trial-level judges could only dismiss claims; now they can invalidate patents outright, and are doing so at an alarming rate. This lack of technical expertise at the trail level has sparked outcry, and has discouraged enforcement.

Yasufumi Shiroyama, an attorney at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune reports: "When the government realized that litigation was taking too long, it took measures to accelerate it. They changed the court system and the civil procedure code, and the number of cases filed increased. But recently it's decreasing, because the court is very negative about enforcing patents."

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This entry comes from a report by IP Law 360, which often presents spotty coverage; this being a instance in point. The obvious questions are to to what degree the IPHC, which is the court of appeals, is being used to correct invalidations, and if the government has recognized that it has a problem.