Patent Case Law and Intellectual Property Practice Blog

Claim: “… a control device … wherein the device to be controlled has a speaker but is not a television …” No particular technical significance was found in the fact that the device controlled in the cited invention was a television. ⇒ Inventive step: denied. (The tactic of exclud

* No abuse of rights. Ultimately, the defendant nonprofit organization’s failure to register the trademark was the reason it lost. As a member of the “Gendai no Riron Editorial Committee,” the plaintiff has published an electronic edition of “Gendai no Riron” since 2014. The defe

* An assignment of copyright was found despite the absence of a written agreement. “In light of the relationship between the plaintiff association and Plaintiff A, … the absence of documentation … cannot be regarded as unreasonable. … Even if the consideration paid was considerab

★ 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

The trademark at issue: “美容医局” (Biyō Ikyoku; designated services: employment placement and others). The relevant consumers are “physicians in cosmetic surgery or cosmetic dermatology.” Physicians with no possibility of changing jobs to cosmetic surgery or cosmetic dermatology are

“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

Violation of Article 5(ii) of the Design Act (a design likely to cause confusion with an article pertaining to another person’s business). ① The padlock attached at the upper center of the design has the characteristics of Hermès’ H trademark, Registration No. 5864813, which styl

“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

* A trade secret allegedly embodied in experimental equipment cannot be said to have been “disclosed.” ⇒ Claim (appeal) dismissed. In response to the argument that the trade secret could not be acquired without the appellants’ involvement, the court turned that argument back on t