Patent Case Law and Intellectual Property Practice Blog

(Presiding Judge Matsuami) *Employer liability under Article 715(1) of the Civil Code recognized!! The manager was to perform managerial duties in accordance with various manuals prescribed by the defendant; whenever an unclear or uncertain matter arose, the manager was required to contact and consult the defendant; and prior written consent from the defendant was required for posting on sites using social media, etc.

(Presiding Judge Takahashi) 1. The text of articles prepared by Kyodo News (the plaintiff) and distributed to newspaper companies does not fall within "miscellaneous news and reporting of current events that are merely communications of facts" (Article 10(2) of the Copyright Act), and qualifies as copyrighted works.

[Action objecting to a decision on an application for an order to disclose sender information] (Presiding Judge Takahashi) = Tokyo District Court, Case No. 2024 (Wa) 70570 (Presiding Judge Takahashi)

"Mark Gonzales / Angel" (Presiding Judge Moritomi) (= First instance: Tokyo District Court, Case No. 2023 (Wa) 70127, Presiding Judge Shibuya) <Applicable law>

"Yamashiron" (Presiding Judge Matsukawa) *Regarding the requirement of "specific reference" under Article 61(2) of the Copyright Act, the court held that a comprehensive statement or agreement is insufficient and that an express agreement specifically identifying the rights under Articles 27 and 28 of the Copyright Act as rights to be transferred is necessary.

A review of 34 articles published in January 2026 by attorney Hideki Takaishi, covering divisional applications, invalidity arguments, claim interpretation, international jurisdiction, standard-essential patents and employee inventions.

A review of 34 articles published in February 2026 by attorney Hideki Takaishi, covering claim interpretation, inventive step, inventorship, employee inventions, pharmaceutical patents, standard-essential patents and copyright.

日本語版 / Japanese version Article information Type: Lectures and videos Classification: Patents, Trademarks, Designs, Copyright, Unfair competition law, Other Japanese law, United States, Other foreign jurisdictions Topics: IP management, Divisional applications, Added matter, Numerical limitations and parameters, Extraterritorial application First published on this site: 2023-12-30 Display and classification checked: 2026-11-14 <New YouTube Video> [Patents] IP Strategy That Se

日本語版 / Japanese version Article information Type: Case note Classification: Copyright Topics: No existing issue tag substantively applies First published on this site: 2023-12-02 Case number: Reiwa 3 (Wa) 13720 Display and classification checked: 2026-11-14 [Copyright / Publication Right] Reiwa 3 (Wa) 13720 <Kokubu> ‘Because the defendant ... created its cover, etc. as a separate work, it can be said to have adapted the plaintiff's cover. ... It cannot be found to have “repr

A 2015 case note on the copyrightability of applied art, discussing the decision in Heisei 26 (Ne) No. 10063 and its relationship to approaches in foreign jurisdictions.