[Trademark] Tokyo District Court, Case No. 2023 (Wa) 70505
Updated: 9 minutes ago
Article information
Article type: Case note
Display and classification checked: 2026-09-30
Categories: Trademarks
Topics: Abuse of rights
Published on this website: 2026-09-29
[Trademark] Tokyo District Court, Case No. 2023 (Wa) 70505
[Gomisar] (Presiding Judge Takahashi)
1. Around 1992, the defendant began manufacturing and selling commercial food-waste treatment machines under the product name "Gomisar" and obtained trademark registration, but the right expired in 2009.
2. In 1996, the plaintiff entered into a sales agency agreement with the defendant for the defendant's products and sold those products.
3. In 2015, the plaintiff obtained the registration at issue for "Gomisar" and began selling its own products.
4. The defendant's request for an invalidation trial was unsuccessful.
⇒ Abuse of rights.
At the time of the trademark application, the "Gomisar" indication, including the defendant's mark used for commercial food-waste treatment machines, embodied the goodwill of the defendant, which developed and manufactured the products and supplied them to multiple sales agents.
The expiration of the defendant's former trademark right on June 18, 2009 does not mean that the defendant abandoned its rights in the "Gomisar" indication, nor does it transfer the goodwill embodied in that indication from the defendant to the plaintiff.
Originally posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7510141949362847744/
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This log starts on 30 September 2026. Display and classification checks are distinct from a review of the legal analysis.
2026-09-30 — Presentation update: added the article type, this change log and a link to consultation options. The existing article text was preserved.
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