Akihiro Tomomura

Bronze - Individuals: litigation

Recommended - Individuals: transactions

“One of the top law firms in Japan”, TMI Associates has “excellent patent attorneys and attorneys at law, who can assist clientele with a high level of expertise and a wide range of services. Their advice is always solid and reliable.” TMI Associates continues to set the gold standard for both contentious and non-contentious matters. The team of almost 400 patent experts with diverse technical backgrounds smoothly collaborate to deliver seamless, multidimensional advice across the whole patent spectrum. Drawing on his 50 years of experience, reputed managing partner Yoshiyuki Inaba meticulously supervises the day-to-day operations of the practice. From portfolio management to court and JPO proceedings, he ensures that every single client and matter receives the team’s full attention. He also has a knack for ensuring peaceful and successful negotiations. “Yoshi is very good.” Formerly an in-house counsel for Microsoft in Washington, and director of IP at Microsoft Japan, cosmopolitan Toyotaka Abe now leverages this experience to dispense commercially sound, technically savvy advice, and handles prosecution, litigation and transactions. He is licensed in both Japan and California. “Based on Toyotaka’s high level of domestic and international IP and corporate experience, he is able to accurately assess our needs and recommend the best solutions for obtaining patents. He is very careful about not only providing good advice, but also tailoring it to the client's unique circumstances and needs. He is also good at finding creative suggestions or solutions for unusual situations, and has on occasion given us a second opinion that helped us save IP assets when we thought there was nothing we could do, based on advice from other counsel. He is also skilled in corporate licensing negotiations; his ability to develop negotiation strategies taking into account case law allows him to provide a good service to inexperienced companies.” As a former in-house expert at Sony specialising in global patent matters, and a systems engineer at Japan’s leading system integration companies, computer science whizz Yukio Oishi tackles IT-related patent prosecution and disputes, to great results. He “always impresses with his comprehensive work and deep thinking. Because of his prior experience at Sony, his professional advice not only includes deep legal knowledge but also tackles the business angle, which helps his clientele a lot.” With a knack for prosecution, litigation and enforcement, seasoned and personable Toshifumi Onuki often takes the lead in cases for major patrons. His knowledge of circuitry design engineering of CPU boards and firmware programming allows him to easily grasp complex technical concepts and effectively communicate with R&D-related patrons. Versatile Makoto Okada deftly handles both contentious and non-contentious matters, and is especially adept at tackling patent disputes in courtrooms, invalidation actions before the JPO and customs’ import suspensions – for the latter, he was chosen as the customs’ IP rights expert adviser for five consecutive years. A market sources praises him as “excellent: he provides valuable professional services including in highly difficult and complex issues with fewer precedent cases. He took on a difficult situation, where we had lost the case at the original court, to a victory at the High Court and a final victory at the Supreme Court. This is proof that he has a high level of litigation execution ability and can demonstrate high added value in multiple legal fields.” In charge of the Silicon Valley office, technically minded litigator and licence negotiator Atsushi Sato is a staunch ally for Japanese businesses seeking holistic patent assistance in the United States – and vice versa. An IP veteran with more than 20 years of experience, Hiroshi Nemoto excels on the contentious front, handling litigations and pre-litigation counselling on behalf of global market leaders. Also a contentious matter virtuoso, physicist and ex-patent office appeals expert Norie Matsuyama takes the lead in technically complex cases for marquee names. Armed with an engineering degree and in-house experience, Japan and California-qualified Akihiro Tomomura devises strategically sound solutions to complex contentious issues. Having worked in German, Chinese and US law firms, he now possesses deep cross-cultural knowledge and in-depth experience in handling SEP litigations and licence negotiations.