A Tokyo High Court judge on Tuesday criticized the government's plan to create a court that would specialize in intellectual property lawsuits.
"Nobody doubts the significance of establishing such a court," Kazuaki Yamashita told a symposium in Tokyo. "The problem is that the plan appears to be politically motivated to publicize the government's avowed new national policy of seeking Japan's national survival through promotion of intellectual property.
"The fundamental principle of the judicial system should not be sacrificed for the sake of political or industrial gains," he said.
As part of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform programs, the government will submit legislation to this session of the Diet that would create a new high court within the Tokyo High Court dealing exclusively with lawsuits related to patent, design, utility models and other intellectual property rights.
The new court is expected to be launched in fiscal 2005.
Yamashita, part of the high court division that deals exclusively with litigation in this particular field, said he welcomes growing interest in intellectual property. But he told the audience of about 1,000 businesspeople and judicial experts that for more than 50 years, the high court has been steadily expanding the function of his division by nurturing judges well-versed in both law and technology, and by increasing the number of specialized investigators.
What matters is substance, not a publicity blitz, he said.
Yamashita said the ongoing institutional changes would only hinder the much-anticipated speedy enforcement of a fair and just trial.