Patent Case Law and Intellectual Property Practice Blog

★ Application for a provisional injunction based on violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act: a case denying patent infringement by finding that the medical-use invention was not worked under an “exclusively” standard and that, on the patentee’s argument that a certain

“Exhibit Ko 1 does not describe any need to ascertain the position or size of the modified region relative to the principal surface of the processing region. … It merely suggests that, by using an infrared image sensor, reflected infrared light (laser light) is used to adjust foc

* Even if a defect in the divisional procedure for a patent application has been overlooked, a “correction” to clarify an ambiguous statement cannot be made to cure it. If a defect in an amendment or division is overlooked and the patent is registered, the situation may become ir

“Exhibit Ko 1 has no modified region in the thickness direction of the substrate. Accordingly, there is no need to ascertain the position or size of a modified region in the substrate’s thickness direction, and a person skilled in the art who encounters Exhibit Ko 1 has no … moti

Numerical rounding and the doctrine of equivalents The issue was whether the appellee’s product, with a molecular weight of 699.91848, satisfied the numerical limitation of a molecular weight of “700 or more.” ⇒ Ultimately, because the applicant had “deliberately” drawn the line

“The means for solving the problem … ‘oxygen supply means for supplying micro-nanobubbles containing oxygen into the second containment tank,’ unlike the supply means for the first containment tank, … does not include supply means that supplies micro-nanobubbles to which ozone ha

* 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: 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 Tokyo High Court, 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 judgm

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 Tokyo High Court, 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 viewe