Patent Case Law and Intellectual Property Practice Blog

* No “monopoly benefit”!! ⇒ Claim (appeal) dismissed. “Even if, as the appellant argues, the solvent fractionation method entails danger and may sometimes cause serious accidents, … it is difficult to find that, through the exclusionary effect of the patent right, the appellee ex

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Reports and activities Categories: Patents Topics: Inventive step, Numerical limitations and parameters, Examination and appeal practice First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 Trial and Appeal Practitioners Study Group Report 2024 — Theme 2 (Chemistry 1) [Inventive step in parameter and numerically limited inventions] When can a numerical range not express

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Publication review Categories: Trademarks, Unfair competition law, Other foreign jurisdictions Topics: Well-known and famous marks, Confusion First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 [Article / Australian Trademarks] Protection of well-known trademarks and unfair use through packaging imitation: Lessons from the Jägermeister case (遠藤華英, Patent, November 2025

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Case note Categories: Trademarks Topics: Distinctiveness First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 Case information: Reiwa 6 (Gyo-Ke) No. 10058 [Trademarks] Reiwa 6 (Gyo-Ke) No. 10058 (Judge Hibiku Shimizu) Three-dimensional shape of a support base for a dental model → Registration refused under Article 3(1)(iii); Article 3(2) not satisfied. (Excerpt from the

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Case note Categories: Patents Topics: Examination and appeal practice First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 Case information: Heisei 10 (Gyo-Ke) No. 82 Heisei 10 (Gyo-Ke) No. 82 — Semiconductor device (Judge Shinohara) TI v. Fujitsu *The court recognized “identity” under Article 39(1) and held the patent invalid. (Excerpts from the judgment, translated; p

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Case note Categories: Patents Topics: Examination and appeal practice First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 Case information: Heisei 6 (Gyo-Ke) No. 243 Heisei 6 (Gyo-Ke) No. 243 — Buddhist altar (Judge Minoru Takeda) *For applications filed on the same day (Article 39(2)), it is not enough that the other invention is identical when viewed from one inventi

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Case note Categories: Trademarks, Unfair competition law, Other Japanese law Topics: Trademark use, Trade secrets, Contracts First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 Case information: Reiwa 5 (Wa) No. 829 [Claim for contractual penalties] Osaka District Court, Reiwa 5 (Wa) No. 829 (Judge Matsuami) The defendant had been a franchisee but terminated the contra

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Publication review Categories: Unfair competition law Topics: Indications of goods or business, Confusion First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 [Article / Unfair Competition Prevention Act, Article 2(1)(i)] Protection of product packaging consisting of weakly distinctive elements — Suntory Black Oolong Tea case (Yukari Hira, Intellectual Property Law and

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Case note Categories: Trademarks Topics: Similarity of trademarks, Trademark infringement First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 Case information: Reiwa 4 (Wa) No. 16062 [Trademarks] Tokyo District Court, Reiwa 4 (Wa) No. 16062 — “仙修” (Judge Shibata) Registered mark: 仙脩 ① 仙修: similar ② 仙修六神丸: similar ③ 御所 (boxed separately) 仙修: similar ④ 御所仙修: dissimilar ①

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Article information Article type: Case note Categories: Unfair competition law Topics: Indications of goods or business, Confusion First published on this website: 2026-10-16 Display and classification checked: 2026-10-17 Case information: Heisei 31 (Ne) No. 10002 [Unfair competition] IP High Court, Heisei 31 (Ne) No. 10002 (Judge Otaka) A violation of Article 2(1)(i) of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act was found for products whose cus