Patent Case Law and Intellectual Property Practice Blog

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む [Article / Designs] The boundary of similarity assessment between partial and whole designs (Design Committee, Patent, April 2025) 1. Four requirements for a whole design and a partial design to be found similar (Design Examination Guidelines) (1) Common use and function: The uses and functions of the articles, etc. of both designs must be identical or similar. (2) Correspondence between the part and the whole: The use and function of the w

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む [Design] IP High Court, Case No. 2024 (Ne) 10086 [Storage container] (Presiding Judge Hibiki Shimizu) *Not similar (the design right holder lost on reversal). <Identification of the essential portion> Viewed individually, each configuration of the plaintiff's design exists in known designs. However, no known design possessing all of them is found, so novel creativity is recognized in the unified aesthetic impression produced by their combin

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む [Design] Case No. 2024 (Gyo-ke) 10108 [Packaging container / Partial design] (Presiding Judge Masuda) ★ A judgment clarifying whether a partial design and an overall design can be registered as related designs, and the difference in the scope of comparison in assessing novelty!! <Comparison with the principal design: related design, Article 10(1)> The design in the application is a partial design covering only the flange, whereas the princi