[Article / Patents] Identifying the creator under the Design Act (Tsuyoshi Fujimoto, Patent, October 2024)

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Article information

Article type: Publication review

Display and classification checked: 2026-09-30

Categories: Designs

Topics: Creators and inventors

Published on this website: 2026-09-29

[Article / Patents] Identifying the creator under the Design Act (Tsuyoshi Fujimoto, 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.

https://lnkd.in/gSBwc5xE

https://lnkd.in/gtcDDXVq

意匠法における創作者の認定 — jpaa-patent.info

Originally posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7510492951312199680/

Related articles

Shared topic: Creators and inventors — [Copyright] Osaka District Court, Case No. 2025 (Wa) 3632

Shared topic: design creators — [Publication review] [Article / Designs] Overview of court decisions on employee-created designs (Tsuyoshi Fujimoto, Patent, January 2026)

Updates and corrections

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.

2026-10-01 | Related articles: added reciprocal links with shared-topic or comparative grounds; original text unchanged.

2026-10-01 | Name notation: replaced verified Japanese-script personal names with Roman-letter forms in this English article and its navigation. Legal analysis and original publication date unchanged.

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