[Article/Unfair Competition Prevention Act] Trends in Regulation of Dead Copies of Product Configuration (Yoshiyuki Tamura, Intellectual Property Law and Policy Journal, 2009)
Updated: 6 hours ago
Article information
Article type: Publication review
Category: Unfair competition law
Topics: —
First published on this website: 2026-11-01
Display and classification checked: November 2, 2026
Originally published on Ameblo: 2025-04-22 (Japan time). Full English translation.
[Article/Unfair Competition Prevention Act] Trends in Regulation of Dead Copies of Product Configuration (Yoshiyuki Tamura, Intellectual Property Law and Policy Journal, Vol. 25 (2009))
*Tokyo District Court, November 27, 2002, [Belluna/Ryu Ryu] case
⇒ Clothing identical in configuration apart from having its sleeves cut off was held to fall under Article 2(1)(iii) of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.
(1) “Ordinarily possessed configuration”
*Tokyo District Court, March 30, 2005, [Frilled Cut-and-Sewn Top] case
⇒ Protection is denied where combining existing, publicly known product configurations is easy.
(2) Imitation of a part
*Tokyo District Court, May 24, 2005, [Footrest for Precast Manholes] case
⇒ Even a part is treated as equivalent to imitation of the whole if it can be traded as a standalone product.
— Tokyo High Court, 2003 (Ne) 3575, [Sekisui House] case: because the front of a house is extremely important, similarity of the front can amount to imitation. (Ultimately, substantial identity was rejected.)
(3) Imitation of the interior
⇒ Two judgments held that this did not constitute “product configuration.”
(4) Color, luster and texture
The catalyst was the NuBra case (Osaka High Court, 2005 (Ne) 2866), which denied protection because of differences in texture.
— Even after the amendment, the Osaka District Court, 2007 (Wa) 8262, [Cosmetic Container] case rejected substantial identity because of differences in luster and color.
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