Osaka District Court, Reiwa 4 (Wa) 8985 [Cross connector] <Judge Matsukawa>
Updated: 5 days ago
Article information
Article type: Case note
Category: Patents
Topics: Claim interpretation
First published on this website: October 6, 2026
Case information: Osaka District Court, Reiwa 4 (Wa) 8985 [Cross connector] <Judge Matsukawa>
Display/classification checked: October 6, 2026
Osaka District Court, Reiwa 4 (Wa) 8985 [Cross connector] <Judge Matsukawa>
(Plaintiff: Inaba Denki Sangyo v. Defendant: Marui Sangyo)
Based on the specification and common general technical knowledge, the court held that the invention also encompasses a configuration in which the “first holding portion” and the “second holding portion” share members.
⇒ Claim elements satisfied.
(Excerpt from the judgment, translated)
The claims and the specification contain no wording providing that the “first holding portion” and the “second holding portion” cannot share members. Rather, there is a description premised on their being able to share members (paragraph [0057] of the specification). Therefore, it cannot be said that the “first holding portion” and the “second holding portion” are subject to a limitation prohibiting them from sharing members.
[…]
Furthermore, “(the second holding portion is) connected to the first holding portion so as to permit relative displacement” (claim element C), also taking account of paragraph [0050] of the specification, is understood to include enabling easy adjustment of the crossing angle between suspension bolt 81 (first rod-shaped body) and brace bolt 82 (second rod-shaped body) through relative displacement of the “second holding portion” with respect to the “first holding portion” during an intermediate stage of installation. As stated above, there is no limitation prohibiting the “first holding portion” and the “second holding portion” from sharing members. Therefore, where the crossing angle between the first and second rod-shaped bodies can easily be changed through relative displacement of the “second holding portion” with respect to the “first holding portion,” the requirement “connected so as to permit relative displacement” is satisfied even if the connected members are shared by the first and second holding portions.
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October 6, 2026: First published on this website from the LinkedIn original; article information, classification, topics, source, and consultation guide were added.
October 6, 2026: Translation navigation, canonical, and hreflang were aligned with the final published URLs.
October 6, 2026 | Related-article update: Added reciprocal links based on the same case or a shared issue.
2026-10-08: Consolidated the two parts into one article; portions of the translated judgment excerpt were omitted, with omissions marked.
2026-10-12: added stable management IDs; completed missing management lines; completed canonical, hreflang, and paired search-index links. The original article text was not changed.
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