[Copyright] Osaka District Court, Reiwa 1 (Wa) No. 10940
Updated: Oct 9
Article information
Article type: Case note
Category: Copyright
Topics: Damages
First published on this site: 2026-10-10
Display/classification checked: 2026-10-10
[Copyright] Osaka District Court, Reiwa 1 (Wa) No. 10940
The court affirmed the copyrightability of the program, taking into account the volume of its source code.
*Where the source code and the functions contained in it are extensive, creativity is recognized unless there are special circumstances (Tokyo District Court, January 28, 2011, New Masuda-ashi case).
There was an implied license for the acts of reproduction and modification.
→ Infringement of copyright (the right of reproduction and the right of integrity) was denied.
On the other hand, infringement of the right of attribution was found with respect to the defendant’s display of only its own company name on the program’s startup and version screens and its removal of the plaintiff’s name.
→ Damages of JPY 100,000 were awarded.
*On appeal (Intellectual Property High Court, Reiwa 6 (Ne) No. 10017), the amount was reduced to JPY 50,000 because some of the programs had not been “offered or presented to the public.”
Original article (2025-08-05):
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This history records actual publication, display, and classification changes made on this site.
2026-10-10: First published the LinkedIn original on this site and set the classification, article information, and consultation link.
2026-10-10: Aligned the translation link, canonical URL and hreflang with the verified public URLs.
2026-10-10: Updated topic tags and related-article links. The original article text was not changed.
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