IP High Court, Heisei 31 (Gyo-Ke) No. 10055 — Mechanical fastener (Judge Otaka)
Updated: 3 days ago
Article information
Article type: Case note
Category: Patents
Topics: Inventive step, Numerical limitations and parameters
Published on this website: 2026-10-08
Display/classification checked: 2026-10-14
IP High Court, Heisei 31 (Gyo-Ke) No. 10055 — Mechanical fastener (Judge Otaka)
The numerical range overlapped with the preferred numerical range described in the cited reference.
⇒ The numerical range of the invention was readily conceivable.
(Excerpt from the judgment, translated)
A person skilled in the art who has read the cited reference, based on the motivation to reduce the thickness of male-side sheet material 1, would naturally conceive of selecting smaller values within the numerical ranges described as preferred in the cited reference also for dimensions other than the height of male engaging portions 3 and for the number of male engaging portions 3 per unit area, etc., if smaller values are selected for the thickness of base sheet 2 and the height of male engaging portions 3 in the cited invention within their respective preferred ranges. Therefore, there is no particular difficulty in appropriately selecting any value within the range of approximately 19.9 to approximately 42.7 g/m² as the basis weight of male-side sheet material 1. Accordingly, a person skilled in the art could readily conceive of setting the basis weight of male-side sheet material 1 in the cited invention to a value within the range of the configuration of the amended invention relating to Difference 3 (“a range of 25 grams per square meter to 75 grams per square meter”)….
Update history
This history records actual publication, display, and classification changes made on this site.
2026-10-08: Published an English translation of the Japanese article on this website.
2026-10-12: corrected Wix category and topic-tag references to the existing English labels; added stable management IDs; completed missing management lines; completed canonical, hreflang, and paired search-index links. The original article text was not changed.
2026-10-14: Added the “Numerical limitations and parameters” topic tag to align the classification with the article's substance and its Japanese counterpart. The original article text was not changed.
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