2022 (Ne) 10055 [Specified Heat-Treated Meat Product] <Shoji>
Updated: 1 day ago
Article information
Article type: Case note
Category: Patents
Topics: Inventive step, Motivation and teaching away
First published on this website: 2026-11-01
Display and classification checked: November 2, 2026
Originally published on Ameblo: 2025-06-27 (Japan time). Full English translation.
2022 (Ne) 10055 [Specified Heat-Treated Meat Product] <Shoji>
*Technology for safely heated meat products cannot be applied to insufficiently heated, unsafe meat products.
⇒ Inventive step: satisfied
(Excerpts from the court's reasoning)
Specified heat-treated meat products and heat-treated meat products differ not only in the heating temperature and time at the meat's center, but also completely in … the principle of color development. Producing a specified heat-treated meat product by changing the heating temperature and time of a heat-treated meat product therefore cannot be regarded as a matter of routine design.
In addition, heat-treated meat products heated to their centers for a sufficient time and adequately sterilized differ entirely in safety from specified heat-treated meat products deliberately not thoroughly heated and eaten as they are. A person skilled in the art would therefore not contemplate applying the technology of heat-treated meat products, whose safety is ensured both by thorough heating and by addition of nitrite during curing, to specified heat-treated meat products that are not thoroughly heated and in which bacteria may proliferate again.
Even if one did apply it, producing a specified heat-treated meat product would require major changes to specifications, such as control of heating temperature and time and whether to use a color-forming agent. Thus, a person skilled in the art encountering pastrami beef, a heat-treated meat product, would not thereby be motivated to apply the same manufacturing technology to make a specified heat-treated meat product.
Furthermore, even if consumers prefer to avoid color-forming agents, this concerns only their product choices when purchasing and does not provide a basis for applying the manufacturing technology as well.
Related articles
Update history
The first-published date remains unchanged. Display maintenance, classification changes, related-article updates, and text corrections are recorded separately.
November 1, 2026: First published on this website.
November 2, 2026: Added article information, classification, topics, language navigation, related articles where the same case was confirmed, consultation guidance, and SEO. The original text and first-published date were preserved.
Comments