[Article / Patents] Identifying the creator under the Design Act (藤本一, Patent, October 2024)
Updated: 2 hours ago
Article information
Categories: Designs
Topics: Creators and inventors
Published on this website: 2026-09-29
[Article / Patents] Identifying the creator under the Design Act (藤本一, Patent, October 2024)
Case law indicates that overturning creator status through oral testimony alone is extremely difficult; objective evidence such as drawings and daily work reports is indispensable.
Identification typically proceeds in two steps: (1) considering the nature, use and manner of use of the article embodying the disputed design and whether it contains new creative portions absent from known designs, identify the creative features most likely to attract traders’ and consumers’ attention; (2) determine whether the person claiming to be the creator can be said to have creatively produced those features.
Tokyo High Court, Heisei 1 (Gyo-Ke) 162, “Transmission-line dead-end clamp”
Misappropriation was found based on drawings supplied by the party commissioning manufacture. If differences are minor, the drawing’s author is recognized as the creator.
Osaka District Court, Heisei 27 (Wa) 8271, “Clothes-drying device”
Participation only in a rejected design proposal does not make one a creator.
IP High Court, Reiwa 5 (Gyo-Ke) 10008, “Roof tile”
Where involvement in a distinctive part (such as specifying thickness) amounted merely to “presenting an idea,” creator status was denied even though specific dimensions had been indicated.
Originally posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7510492951312199680/
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