Professor Takabayashi founded RCLIP in 2004, and served as RCLIP’s director until 2023. Professor Takabayashi started his illustrious career as a Japanese judge in 1978, and served as a judge until 1995. During his tenure as a judge, he worked at the Industrial Property Law section of the Tokyo District Court, and as a judicial research official at the Supreme Court. In 1995, Professor Takabayashi accepted an offer to join the law faculty at Waseda University, where he served until his retirement in 2023.

Referred to as the “founding father” of intellectual property law at Waseda, Professor Takabayashi deeply impacted law students over almost three decades; more than ten graduate students he supervised eventually ascended to become and currently serve as full-time IP law professors at universities in Japan, China, or in Korea, a powerful testimony to his passion and excellence in the classroom. After retiring from the Waseda faculty, Professor Takabayashi joined Soei Patent & Law Firm, and remains affiliated with RCLIP as an honorary director and special advisor. 

Professor Takabayashi is widely regarded as a leading authority in the area of intellectual property law in his generation in Japan. His publications include Hyōjun Tokkyohō (Patent Law from the Ground Up; Yuhikaku, 8th edition, 2023) and Hyōjun Chosakukenhō (Copyright Law from the Ground Up, Yuhikaku, 5th edition, 2022), both widely adopted standard textbooks in the field, as well as Nenpō chiteki zaisan-hō (Intellectual Property Law Annual Report), a detailed yearbook on intellectual property law that has been published annually since 2005.

Professor Takabayashi has served as the chairman of the Japan Association of Industrial Property Law since 2015. Between 2016 and 2017, he was also the chairman of the Patent System Subcommittee of the Industrial Structure Council, the primary patent law development committee within the Japanese government. Further, Professor Takabayashi is a board member of the Japan Copyright Law Association, the vice-chairman of the Japanese Association for Design and Law, and has since 2002 led the Central Research Institute of the Japan Patent Attorneys Association as its Chief Researcher.

saiban@waseda.jp