Asahi reported [J] that Japan’s Patent Office(JPO) decided to terminate their patent management system renewal project which began in 2006. They already spent 5.5 billion yen(US$70 million) and specially formed inspection committee in the organization recommended to stop the project.
The project term was set from December 2006 to January 2014, development by Toshiba Solution Corporation(TSOL) [J] and operation by Accenture [J]. Asahi reported that the delay mostly came from development issue.
According to Fumi Yamazaki [J], a blogger who read the report [J], TSOL began the system design in 2006 with 60 staff, but saw delay already in 2007. The team expanded to 200 in March 2007, 450 in May 2007 and finally became 1,300 people in November 2008 but the produced design was not at the usable level.
Whilst the work itself stagnated, some bribery and leaks of classified information were informed and discovered with current and the former contractor companies.
