事務所情報

AKIHIKO WATANABE, Esq.

1-3-1, Saiwai Building 9^th Fl. Suite 901

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Japan 100-0011

E-mail: watlaw@tkd.att.ne.jp

Phone: 81-3-4405-0094

Fax: 81-3-6673-4102

Resume

Education:

University of Pennsylvania, School of Law, LL. M., 1990

University of Pennsylvania, Special Student 1990-1991

majoring in International Sales of Goods under CISG

Kyoto University, Doctoral Course 1986-1988

majoring in Civil Procedure and Bankruptcy Law

Legal Training and Research Institute, 1985-1986

Kyoto University LL. M. 1985

majoring in Bankruptcy Law, and taking credits of

Civil Procedure, Commercial Law, International

Transaction & Conflicts of Laws

Institute of Journalism of the University of Tokyo, 1978-1980

Special Student majoring in Information Theory

Hitotsubashi University, LL. B., 1976

Hitotsubashi University, Faculty of Economics, 1976-78

majoring in Quantitative Information Theory and Mathematical

Programming (Dynamic Programming)

Professional Experience:

Practicing law as an attorney licensed in Japan (bengoshi) 1991 to present.

Blakemore & Mitsuki 1988-1991;

Mitsui & Yasuda, 1987-1988;

Tomita & Kanazawa, 1986-1987 (changed name to Mitsui & Yasuda, 1987).

Professional Backgrounds:

²  From 1986, I involved in securities and banking transaction practices, which include financial swaps, financial futures, initial public offerings, and loan and financing agreement documentations.  I have substantial experience banking and securities regulations fields in Japan and United States.  My recent work in this Fields are;

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Involved in acquisition of a Japanese supermarket company by a U.S. supermarket company and prepared securities reports and its English translation in 2012.

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Involved in tender offer project of a Japanese company and prepared a tender offer statement in Japanese and (reference) English in 2014

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Advised to a leveraged buyout (MBO) deal of a famous theme park in Kansai area in 2016 (prepared a complete set of Japanese versions of leveraged buyout agreements);

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Sale of U.S. venture capital limited partnership interests in Japan in 2019 (private placement to QIIs)

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Sale of partnership interests in Australian coal fields to Japanese electric power companies in 2019.

²  From 1996, I worked for software companies and semiconductor companies and I am familiar with software and semiconductor technology license practices.  My recent involvements include:

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Prepared Japanese version of documentations for pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics software to be used for new drug development (in laboratory and Phase 1 studies) in 2018;

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Prepared GDPR compliant coockie policies and personal information or privacy policies for foreign and domestic corporations’ sites.

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Prepared open source (including GPL) software license agreements for Japanese companies.

²  From 2001, I involved in real property development business and accumulated substantial expertise in asset-backed securities and securitization transactions in general, which include drafting asset liquidation plan, special purpose company's bond issuance, purchase and sale of real properties, various real property trust agreement, asset management agreements, property manage agreements.

·

Prepared a ground lease agreement of a property located in Yokohama for Tesla Japan's factory.

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Assisted a U.S. theme park company (lessee) in the conciliation proceeding for revising rent with local municipality (lessor).

·

Prepared an office lease agreement for the Tokyo office of Malaysian airline company.

²  From my start of practice to date, I have been regularly involved in general corporate matters and have experience in corporate formation and acquisition transactions such as:

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Formation of a Japanese LLC (godo gaisha) to be funded by a US and Japanese corporations in 2015;

·

Prepared English and Japanese documentations for a merger transaction (including various internal documents such as shareholders Meeting agenda and bord resolutions) between Singapore-based payment service company and a Japanese telecommunication service company.

Ø  I have substantial experience in industry-academic collaboration agreements in the field of development of bio-makers and brain science with Kyoto, Kobe, Kagoshima, Tohoku, Hokkaido University and other universities.  Also, I have involved in the documentation tasks in various national projects including in Japan.

·

Brain/Minds (Kakushin Nou) national project

·

The Japan Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (J-PPMI)

Ø  I have an extensive experience in Japanese and U.S. patent law and practices and patent licensing and patent prosecution as well as other intellectual property rights field including confidentiality agreements and material transfer agreements in various scientific contexts.

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Various joint patent application agreements

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Various patent assignment agreements

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Various patent license agreements

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Involved in various imaging software development projects and prepared software development agreements.

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Regularly prepared seminar materials in Japanese for U.S. law firms.  I am very familiar with PTAB proceedings.

I have assisted many companies in medical, power, semiconductor, and other fields in U.S. discovery proceedings.

Other Transactions Involved:

2018 to date:

·

Assisted an exclusive partnership agreement for the development, commercialization and sales of EEG analysis software for the Japanese market in December, 2018. This EEG analysis software for an EEG diagnosis, a proprietary EEG database, and by use of artificial intelligence technology, successfully established algorithm to distinguish Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) from Dementia with Lewy Body (DLB) by analyzing EEG.  This exclusive partnership agreement utilizing Artificial Intelligence is the first fist of its kind in Japan.

This project is in progress.

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Assisted to execute a collaborative research agreement for development of peptide-conjugated bio-makers in December, 2018.

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Assisted to execute a TECHNOLOGY COLLABORATION AGREEMENT for Ac (Actinium) for the treatment of cancer.

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Assisted to establish a framework for introducing a software library for neurological and biomedical image analysis that has been developed over the past 2 decades by a U.S. researcher into Japanese market.  This software includes programs for both basic research applications in November, 2018.

2017

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Assisted a start-up of small animal PET imaging business for preclinical and non-clinical studies for Japanese pharmaceutical companies in June, 2017.

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Assisted a start-up of antibody-radioisotope probes research by Japanese company and universities and prepared research collaboration agreements and IPRs ownership agreements in 2017.

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Assisted a Japanese company to participate government-sponsored research project for 4^th generation of cancer medicine;

2016

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Assisting to introduce “a radioactive diagnostic agent indicated for Positron Emission Tomography imaging of the brain to estimate β-amyloid neuritic plaque density in adult patients with cognitive impairment who are being evaluated for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or other causes of cognitive decline.”  License Agreement and API Supply Agreement.

·

Assisting to out-license a diagnostic agent "indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in men with suspected prostate cancer recurrence based on elevated prostate specific antigen (PSA) known as anti-1-amino-3-18F-fluorocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid,” to an England based venture company.  License Agreement.

2015

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Assisting Phase I to III studies and their logistic service for “Radium 223 dichloride to treat Prostate cancer that is castration resistant and is used in patients whose disease has metastasized to the bones and is causing symptoms but has not spread to other organs.”  Mainly Logistics Service Agreements.

2014

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Assisting to introduce “(t)he first-and-only FDA-approved visual adjunct imaging agent indicated for striatal dopamine transporter visualization using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain imaging.”  Marketing Collaboration Agreement.

2013

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Assisting US-Japan joint venture to introduce therapeutic and companion diagnostic drug using cell endocytosis function in Japanese market. From “Confidential Non-Binding Term Sheet Proposal” to final execution of “LICENSE, DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALIZATION AGREEMENT.”  This venture developer is recently acquired by a large US pharmaceutical company.

Speeches and Lectures

Delivers lectures on Transnational Legal Problems including software licensing technology-driven transactions to in-house counsels working for TSE-listed Japanese Domestic Companies and and Foreign Subsidiaries bimonthly.

Bar Admission:

Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association (Japan)

Membership

Japan Association of Civil Procedure, Japan Association of International Civil Law.