IP High Court, Reiwa 6 (Gyo-Ke) 10081 [Pet matching system] <Presiding Judge Nakahira>
Updated: 2 days ago
Article information
Article type: Case note
Category: Patents
Issues: Inventive step; Motivation and teaching away
First published on this website: 2026-10-03
Display and classification checked: 2026-10-03
IP High Court, Reiwa 6 (Gyo-Ke) 10081 [Pet matching system] <Presiding Judge Nakahira>
* No inventive step for a claim with a disclaimer.
To distinguish the invention from the prior art (a system for handing over animals at an animal hospital), the limitation “excluding animal hospitals and places where a veterinarian is present” was added, but was found readily conceivable.
(Excerpt from the judgment — English translation)
The plaintiff argues that ... the handover location being “at least one of a veterinarian or an animal hospital” forms the core of the cited invention's technical concept and is an essential requirement for solving its problem. On that basis, the plaintiff argues that changing the handover location from “at least one of a veterinarian or an animal hospital” to a location other than an animal hospital or a place where a veterinarian is present would change an essential requirement constituting the core of the cited invention's technical concept and solving its problem, and would run contrary to that technical concept; therefore, there is no motivation and, rather, there is a factor teaching away.
However, the plaintiff's argument assumes that the animal handover location in the cited invention is limited to an animal hospital or a place where a veterinarian is present. As that premise cannot be established ..., the plaintiff's argument lacks its premise and cannot be accepted.
Update and correction history
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2026-10-03: First publication from the LinkedIn original; article information, issue tags, language navigation and consultation guidance were added.
2026-10-13: aligned the canonical and search-index URLs with the published URL. The original article text was not changed.
2026-10-13: aligned related-article, topic-guide, and other managed links with the articles’ published URLs. The original article text was not changed.
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