2025 Life Science Intellectual Property Forum Intellectual property work at a turning point: What is required of the people who handle it

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On February 4, 2025, the "2025 Life Science IP Forum" was held at the Sola City Conference Center (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) under the auspices of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan. As in 2024, the event was held in a hybrid format of on-site and online, and was a great success with approximately 250 participants, including visitors. This report provides an overview of the lectures and panel discussion.

Introduction

In the recent Life Science IP Forum, the theme for 2023 is "Toward Social Implementation of Digital Therapeutics (DTx)," and the year 2023 is the year of the transformation of pharmaceutical manufacturers from providing "things" as drugs to providing "things," followed by the year 2024, which will involve many players, including those from different industries. We discussed measures to accomplish drug discovery by creating a virtuous circle in the drug discovery ecosystem. In order to bring new products and services to fruition, it is necessary to be able to build relationships that are convincing and trustworthy while looking at the business environment from a bird's eye view, and it is also necessary to develop such human resources. In light of the need to develop such human resources, we have decided to focus on IP human resources, although this is a very broad topic for the IP Forum 2025.

In this forum, we asked professors from industry, academia, and government to give a wide range of lectures on IP human resources, such as the required IP human resources, skills and mindsets necessary for IP human resources, the changing role of IP departments in pharmaceutical manufacturers, and the use of AI in business operations. In the panel discussion, there was a lively discussion about IP human resources, focusing on themes such as skills and mindsets important for IP human resources, human resource shortage and mobility, and globalization, regardless of the boundaries of industry, academia, and government.

The following is a transcript of his speech and the panel discussion.

Lecture

IP human resources required in the age of AI - with a focus on IP information analysis and IP landscape

Mr. Atsushi Nozaki, President & CEO / IP Information ^Consultant®, ePatent Co.

With the release of Chat GPT-3.5 in November 2022, the situation has become such that we cannot talk about IP human resources as a theme without mentioning generative AI. The IP Human Resource Skills Standard ver. 2.0 issued by the JPO in 2017 describes the skills required of IP human resources by classifying the levels into strategy and execution, but these are skills that should be equipped in the IP function, and one IP person is not required to cover all of these skills. However, these skills are skills that should be possessed by the IP function. For example, the skill sets required for IP work (mainly research and analysis) include "business skills," "information gathering, searching, and analyzing skills," and "information utilization skills, We believe that it is necessary to have strengths in one of these skills and to be interested in the other skills, and to act in a way that allows us to constantly obtain information. Especially in the last 10 years, the IP landscape, which is also included in the IP Human Resource Skill Standards, has been attracting attention, and IP departments and IP human resources with strengths in traditional IP skills are required to strengthen their "business skills," which are the skills to invest in and strategically utilize intellectual property.

Considering the applicability and applicability of generative AI to IP work in this environment, the impact of generative AI on IP work is at a stage where we can no longer talk about IP work without it. For example, e-Patent, Inc. uses six types of generative AI, including ChatGPT, in its IP information operations, depending on the purpose and characteristics (e.g., ease of halcyonization). For startups and large companies that do not specialize in patent search and analysis, we have created "GPT for creating patent search formulas," "GPT for creating patent analysis axes," and "chatbots for patent search and analysis" using ChatGPT, which are available for free.

We have considered what kind of human resources and skills will be needed as AI is used to streamline operations in this way. It can be a tool to extend the expertise of T-shape personnel with one specialty to add differentiation factors and shift to a more advanced π-shape or ultra T-shape. At this time, it will be important to hone the bright side skills (patent attorney, MBA, etc.) that can be acquired through learning and the dark side skills (the ability to influence and move people and organizations) that AI cannot replace as skills necessary for differentiation. In such an environment, it will become important to hone the dark side skills of AI.

Finally, I would like to talk about how we should promote human resource development in the field of intellectual property while using generative AI. In the era of using generative AI, the approaches and training methods required for each of these groups will differ. In particular, when training new recruits, it is important for them to gain hands-on experience in creating statements and responding to office actions, as they will not be able to judge the correctness or incorrectness of AI output if they learn to use generative AI from the start. And higher-level personnel in charge of training newcomers are required to make appropriate judgments as to when AI should be used by newcomers.

Technology transfer activities of the University of Tokyo TLO -The role of intellectual property in promoting industry-university co-creation

Ms. Keiko Honda, Patent Attorney, President and Representative Director, The University of Tokyo TLO, Inc.

Today, I would like to introduce how and who is working at the University of Tokyo TLO.

First, I would like to introduce the history of our company. In 2023, we will celebrate our 25th anniversary, and we currently have 40 employees, with an average age of 37 years, and 75% of them are women.

The University of Tokyo TLO has transferred 372 products and services that have generated royalties, 7 pharmaceutical products that have been launched on the market, and accumulated approximately 12.5 billion yen in IP-related income as of the end of FY2022. The University of Tokyo is making a strong effort to support startups, and 148 of 526 startups related to the University of Tokyo are utilizing the University of Tokyo's intellectual property. Of the approximately 1,400 IP licenses held solely by the University of Tokyo, 57% (in 2022) are for startups, half of which are in the life sciences. While Japan as a whole lags behind in startup support, our track record (ratio) is approaching the U.S. model.

Next, I would like to introduce our technology transfer services. We conduct interviews with inventors for all of the approximately 600 invention notifications we receive each year, and we also evaluate the licensing potential of projects that are planned to be owned solely by the university. Once the university decides to file an application, we immediately begin marketing activities. Marketing activities are conducted to explore the possibility of licensing the technology to industry and the possibility of starting up a start-up business. The characteristic of our marketing activities is that a single person is in charge of all these activities and produces them all at once.

The significance of this one-stop-shop approach is that information on market needs and ideas from companies obtained through license negotiations are fed back to researchers, who work together to imagine social implementation and create attractive intellectual property. We believe that by repeating this process, we can increase the certainty of social implementation.

The people who perform this type of work are required to have an extremely diverse range of skills, and we are focusing on nurturing such people, starting with new graduates. In addition to in-house classroom learning, we will have them hone their skills through on-the-job training, using their existing networks to disseminate and gather information. Another important thing is to foster a high level of enthusiasm and passion for social implementation. For this purpose, it is necessary to create motivation and environment as an organization. Successful examples are especially helpful in raising motivation.

Two successful cases of social implementation of Todai's inventions are introduced below: The first is the case of PeptiDream Inc. The first is the case of PeptiDream Corporation, which initially focused on licensing its invention to a company, but this did not materialize and the company changed its policy to establishing a start-up. The second is Vedanta Biosciences. The second is Vedanta Biosciences, which was also started by a US VC who took notice of our research paper after we were unable to find a partner in Japan. It is now a leading microbiome company.

In order to further increase the number of such social implementation cases, our company is also exhibiting and participating in overseas business meetings. This helps us to grasp trends, expand our network, and broaden the perspectives and motivation of our employees who participate.

We at TLO believe that we have a role to play, especially in contributing to the formation of value chains in order to link university inventions to social implementation, and we are promoting the development of human resources who can play an active role in this area.

Efforts to promote open innovation at the JPO

Hidehiko Kaneko, Intellectual Property Utilization Planning and Coordination Officer, Planning and Research Division, General Affairs Department, Japan Patent Office

Today, I would like to introduce two initiatives of the JPO to promote open innovation.

First, I will introduce the skills and mindset of IP human resources that contribute to the business growth of startups. This is a research study conducted in FY2022 through questionnaires and interviews with startups and external IP human resources, and it examined what kind of skills and mindset external IP human resources, for example, patent attorneys in patent firms, should have when supporting startups, and conversely, what kind of knowledge startups should have when they knowledge they should have. This survey was conducted in the composition of external IP human resources (i.e., patent firms and start-ups). First, it is important for external IP professionals to be equipped with the necessary skills and mindset.

First, we have summarized the skills and mindsets that external IP personnel should possess in the following nine areas.

Furthermore, I also summarize the point that the skills and mindset required for external IP personnel to advance startup support will change depending on the stage.

Next, on the start-up side, we have developed the following six categories based on our belief that there are "IP antennas" required at each stage of creating ideas and knowledge, considering business models, and releasing products and services.

Our second initiative is a model agreement to promote open innovation. This model contract was created by the JPO in response to a report by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) in 2020, which conducted a survey of startup business practices and found that some contracts were not necessarily fair. The report describes several specific cases, but points out problems, for example, in not paying the required remuneration at the time of a PoC contract, or in the ownership of IP rights at the time of a joint research contract.

In response to these examples, we have prepared a model contract with the aim of promoting collaboration between large companies and start-ups. We hope that this model agreement will serve as a reference as it explains, in a role-play format, what each party should pay attention to in collaboration.

In fact, while preparing this model contract, we realized that contracts between large companies and start-ups are different in nature from other contracts. For example, even taking one risk hedge as an example, the sense of growth and speed on the startup side and the sense of value on the large company side are different, and it is important to be aware of the maximum benefits for both sides. Therefore, in order to share goals and visions with each other, overcome cultural differences, and promote open innovation smoothly and effectively, we have also prepared a manner book with tips on how to prepare yourself when entering into a contract. We hope that those involved in open innovation will find it useful.

Expanding and Connecting: Expected Roles and Active Fields of IP Human Resources - From the Perspective of Intangible Assets (Human Capital and Intellectual Property)

Mr. Makoto Kobayashi, CEO, Cyclo Hygeia Co.

Today, I would like to talk about "human resources," which is the theme of this forum.

First of all, looking back at the background of the times, we are now in an era in which we have to create "something" out of "nothing" due to extremely difficult issues that have no correct answers, such as the environment, wellbeing, and political instability in the wake of 2022. When delving into the issue from the perspective of human resources, the biggest gap between companies and investors as an important element of mid- to long-term investment strategy was "human resources investment. Investors place importance on efforts to link management strategies with human resource strategies, and for this purpose, it is important for both autonomous individuals and companies to grow together. The relationship between management and employees is also a key factor in this regard. The relationship between management and employees used to be monocultural and homogeneous, but nowadays diversity is widely accepted, and an open relationship is required in which both parties choose and are chosen by each other.

In addition, the Corporate Governance Code was revised in 2021, and IP issues were included for the first time. Initially, there was criticism that it was not possible to disclose important information related to competitiveness, such as IP strategy, but what is required is the disclosure and provision of information that is "consistent with the company's management strategy and management issues. It is necessary to consider the information from a bird's eye view as a corporate activity, not just from the viewpoint of intellectual property. In addition, human resources are needed who can carry this out, i.e., who have skills not only in conventional IP work but also in management and business. Institutional investors are also focusing on intellectual property as one perspective. Another factor in investment decisions is the implementation of ESG-conscious management, and the SDGs are not unrelated to IP. This is because innovation is necessary to solve fundamental issues in any of the SDG goals. A wide range of IP and intangible assets, including know-how and data, are important for competitiveness, and the skills required of IP personnel are expanding to include "strategic skills," requiring a shift to meet the changing role expectations of investors and management. Until now, strategies have been formulated using only competitor and market information, but in the future, IP information will be added and used as business intelligence.

Many IP professionals are good at thinking things through within the rules (laws) (prescribed performance), but are not so good at creating strategies in the absence of correct answers (free performance). In the future, however, the "free acting" part will be emphasized. A mindset is needed to build an IP governance system that is firmly established in the organization, and it is important to turn hard skills, such as the ability to analyze and analyze information, and soft skills, such as the ability to promote the system. In the future market, it will be necessary to multiply the existing IP management with a management perspective of IP governance, a business perspective such as IP landscape, an IP mix perspective that perceives a wide range of things, and an open/closed perspective in corporate collaboration. It is difficult to become, train, or hire a person who has all of the above, but it is important to design your career by considering what contribution you want to make to society and your organization, and what value you want to provide to it.

Lastly, as a proof that IP practice is expanding into innovation and taxation areas, we would like to introduce the innovation base taxation system (innovation box taxation system), which was established in the tax reform of fiscal 2024. This is a system that provides an income tax credit for license income or transfer income arising from IP that meets certain criteria. Although the current financial impact of this system is not sufficient, it should be further revised in the future to make it easier to use and to grow the system even larger. For this reason, we hope that all pharmaceutical companies will actively utilize this system.

Pharmaceutical Industry in Transition and Required IP Human Resources

Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA) Intellectual Property Committee Chairman: Hiroya Okumura

Under the theme of "The Pharmaceutical Industry in Transition and the IP Human Resources Needed," the JIPA held a forum on the impact of the environment in which the pharmaceutical industry is operating, such as the rise of new modalities and the shift to open innovation, the changing role of IP required as a result, as well as the trials of AI utilization and the skills and human resources required in the IP department, at the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ). The following is a summary of the discussions held by the task force of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PALMA).

First, we will present data on the changes in the environment in which the pharmaceutical industry is operating. A look at the trends in ethical drug sales shows that the number of new-modality products is increasing every year. On the other hand, pharmaceutical R&D expenditures continue to increase. Pharmaceutical R&D requires a long investment period, and we can see that the pharmaceutical industry differs from other industries with an R&D expenditure to sales ratio of over 18%.

The number and type of patents related to pharmaceuticals has also changed. Conventional small molecule drugs do not have a large number and variety of patents, while new modality products have complex molecular structures and a wide range of related technologies, and require a different patent strategy than conventional small molecules. Therefore, a patent strategy that is different from the conventional low-molecular-weight strategy is required.

In addition, in research and development of new modality products, alliances with multiple parties such as academia and venture companies will be sought. In the drug discovery ecosystem, IP is an important link among players such as ventures, universities, pharmaceutical companies, and start-ups, and human connections and contracts play an important role in these virtuous circles.

However, with the emergence of open innovation, this has changed, and new IP roles have been added, such as partner search, evaluation, and contractual work. In addition, corporate governance codes and governance guidelines have been established, and these are also becoming increasingly important tasks for the IP department.

Next, I would like to talk about the attempts to utilize AI in pharmaceutical companies. According to interviews with several member companies participating in the IP Committee of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ), the most promising areas for AI utilization are patent search, translation, and IP landscape, which is similar to Dr. Nozaki's evaluation.

The impact of generative AI may actually change the way we do our jobs in the future, and we are very excited about the possible impact of AI on the efficiency of our work, the breadth of our work, and how we do our jobs as the scope of AI applications expands.

Next, I would like to talk about the skills required of an IP department and the personnel who possess those skills. Various IP tasks, such as FTO searches, patent applications, trademarks, license DD, disputes and lawsuits, arise depending on the development stage of pharmaceutical products. In a conventional IP department of a company, one person is often in charge of a specialized field, for example, if it is an application, he/she specializes in the application.

Recently, however, companies have been adopting a form similar to the "one-stop-shop" approach mentioned by Mr. Honda, in which a single person handles all IP work for a single project.

Earlier in Dr. Nozaki's slide, there were also the terms "T-type" and "super T-type personnel. In the task force, there was an exchange of opinions, and it was discussed that the mainstream has been to train I-type personnel who specialize in specific fields, but recently there has been a trend toward training T-type personnel who are in charge of IP work in general for a single project, and that each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

That is the end of my presentation, and I would like to continue the discussion on the required IP human resources in the panel discussion.

Panel Discussion

Moderator: Mr. Hiroya Okumura, Chairperson of the Committee
Panelists: Mr. Atsushi Nozaki, Ms. Keiko Honda, Mr. Hidehiko Kaneko, Mr. Makoto Kobayashi

1) Skills and mind-set required for IP human resources

Is "bird's-eye view" still important as a skill for IP personnel? What about other skills?

Can you comment on the fact that the skills required of IP personnel vary from phase to phase?

Would the results obtained change depending on the presence or absence of a mindset such as enthusiasm and the ability to collaborate?

2. development of IP human resources

Is it necessary for IP personnel to have the ability to propose hypotheses and conduct analysis, which is necessary for personnel in the planning department?

In human resource development, I think it is important not only for those who are being nurtured to be aware, but also for those who are being nurtured to be self-reliant (autonomous).

Could you share with us any initiatives for human resource development from the perspective of universities and support for external organizations?

In Japan, there is a shortage of IP human resources, but I have never heard of such a shortage overseas. Is this partly due to differences in the mobility of human resources?

Regarding the difference between IPO and M&A from the perspective of human resource mobility, does M&A contribute to the improvement of human resource mobility on the acquired side?

3) The development of AI and the future of IP human resources

When AI develops in the future, will the skills required of IP personnel change?

With the rise of AI, what should humans do anew?

From the perspective of global competition, what kind of human resources will be needed?

It will take time to gain the ability to think out of the box and disruptive thinking, but I believe that Japanese technology will surely succeed in comparison to foreign countries. What do you think?

Panel discussion

(Intellectual Property Forum Executive Committee)

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