Intellectual Property Specialist
Tokyo-based frontier AI R&D company that develops nature-inspired AI research and commercial AI products for enterprises and users.
Funding history
About Sakana AI K.K.
Sakana AI develops frontier AI research inspired by collective intelligence and self-evolution, alongside AI products and applied solutions for enterprises and Japan’s public sector.
Skills
Candidate Availability
Required and preferred rules are kept separate and reflect the wording in the original posting.
About the Role
You will identify inventions arising from AI research and defense-focused development, assess their patentability and business value, and manage patent applications through grant. You will advise on whether to patent, publish, or protect work as trade secrets; coordinate with researchers, engineers, patent attorneys, and legal teams; and establish processes for export controls, security-related patent rules, contracts, and intellectual-property governance.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of patent-practice experience from invention discovery through filing and grant in a corporate IP department or patent firm
- Ability to assess and technically review AI and software-related inventions, including machine learning, distributed systems, and data processing
- Ability to discuss technical matters with researchers and engineers and articulate inventions
- Practical knowledge of patent law, trade-secret law, copyright law, software, and open source
- Business-level Japanese proficiency
- Business-level English proficiency
- Willingness to prepare materials and work hands-on in a small, flat organization
- Strong awareness of confidentiality and willingness to cooperate with required suitability and eligibility assessments
- Interest in defense and intelligence and willingness to continually learn relevant systems and technologies
- Must be based in Japan
- Must meet information-security and suitability-assessment criteria, including Japanese nationality, for defense and intelligence assignments
Responsibilities
- Identify inventions from research projects and defense-oriented development through interviews with researchers and engineers
- Assess patentability and business value of inventions
- Recommend whether to patent, protect as a trade secret, or publish research as papers or open source
- Conduct prior-art research and support invention disclosures
- Review patent specifications and claims with patent firms
- Manage domestic, PCT, and foreign patent filings
- Respond to office actions and manage patent annuities and the patent portfolio
- Coordinate publication schedules with filing timing
- Establish procedures for non-disclosure patent filing rules under the Economic Security Promotion Act
- Develop internal rules for technology transfers and deemed-export controls under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act
- Review and support negotiation of intellectual-property provisions in defense-related contracts
- Conduct patent landscape research in defense, intelligence, and generative AI
- Review intellectual-property provisions in customer, joint research, joint development, NDA, and open-source-license agreements
- Develop and operate intellectual-property policies and processes
- Provide intellectual-property education to researchers and engineers
- Select and manage patent firms and research vendors
- Manage the intellectual-property budget and tools
Hiring Process
Document screening, followed by a possible assignment submission.