[No. 77] Nobuyoshi Nagamine

I currently work in the Intellectual Property Department of a manufacturer. The duties of an "Intellectual Property Department" vary by industry, but its fundamental role is to obtain "patent rights" for "inventions" made by researchers.

As you can see from my profile, it may seem strange that I did not pursue a career in academia or research after completing my Doctoral Programs. One of the reasons I chose a career related to intellectual property was that I didn't feel I was suited for research compared to those around me. While this may sound like a slightly pathetic reason, I think it's a relatively common one for people who aspire to work in intellectual property, especially those who aim to become patent attorneys after working as corporate researchers. On the other hand, my initial interest in intellectual property was sparked during my time in a laboratory at Keio University.

I was conducting bioinformatics research in the Sakakibara Laboratory in the Department of Biosciences and Informatics. Bioinformatics is a field of study that analyzes biological data (information obtained from genomes, proteins, etc.) using computational methods (such as simulations and statistical techniques), and it encompasses a wide range of topics. Within this field, I was working on the theme of predicting whether proteins and chemical compounds would bind.

Life in the laboratory has many facets, including individual research projects, group discussions, lab seminars, and events to deepen communication. Among these, presenting one's research is, of course, a crucial aspect. The most immediate opportunities are the bachelor's and master's thesis presentations, followed by presentations at domestic and international academic conferences and submitting papers to journals. Although it varies by field, these are the main opportunities to present research findings at a university. All of these presentations are memorable achievements, made possible by the generous guidance and cooperation of my supervising professor, senior students, peers, and junior students.

For example, when submitting a paper to a journal, one typically responds multiple times to comments from the reviewers who are examining the paper's content. I remember coming up with countermeasures to these comments based on the Q&A sessions during my own presentations or those of my peers in seminars, and then discussing these countermeasures repeatedly with my supervising professor through discussions and email exchanges.

On the other hand, I believe students don't often have the opportunity to think about patent applications. I myself saw patents as something advanced, lofty, and distant. However, Professor Sakakibara valued the idea from my master's research, and because its theme had clear industrial applicability, he had a patent application filed for the idea with Keio University as the applicant. This was what sparked my interest in intellectual property. Incidentally, as of 2010, filing a patent application alone costs 15,000 yen (and the application content is usually published just by filing), but obtaining a patent right in Japan typically costs at least about 200,000 yen, even if you handle all the procedures yourself. Obtaining patent rights overseas can cost in the millions of yen, including translation fees. From a cost perspective as well, it's rare for a typical student to have the chance to file a patent application, so I am grateful to Professor Sakakibara and Keio University for giving me this opportunity.

After that, while working on my research theme, I studied intellectual property, which I had become interested in, as a change of pace from research and as a form of insurance for the future. My studies initially consisted of reading introductory books. Then, for about a year, I attended a prep school to an extent that didn't interfere with my research. After that, I used my commute time and waiting times during experiments (computer-based experiments can take several hours to complete when the number of prediction targets is in the tens of millions) to work on commercially available workbooks and a self-made workbook. This custom workbook was created by compiling and printing problems I had gotten wrong at least once in prep school classes or elsewhere, making it easy to carry around. Then, while enrolled in the Doctoral Programs, I took the patent attorney examination and obtained the qualification to register as a patent attorney.

Currently, I am engaged in various tasks such as searching patent information, preparing patent application documents, and reviewing the content of contracts related to intellectual property rights. While many of these fields are different from what I studied at university, the foundation I built during my university years—especially as an undergraduate following the Department of Biosciences and Informatics curriculum, where I learned the fundamentals of a wide range of academic fields including not only biology but also information science, physics, chemistry, and mathematics—has been helpful in understanding technology relatively quickly. Furthermore, I believe that the skills I cultivated through experiments, such as developing an eye for identifying the key points of phenomena and technologies, considering issues from various angles without being confined to a single explanation, and honing the sense to generalize (or conceptualize at a higher level) discoveries, can be fully utilized in the field of intellectual property.

Keio University is a place blessed with opportunities to encounter various events, starting with the people you meet. This was true for me as well. Even if you haven't found your future goals or direction before entering university, I believe you will surely find clues through the various encounters you have during your university life.