IP High Court, Reiwa 3 (Gyo-Ke) No. 10094 — PCSK9 (second litigation) (Judge Kanno)
Updated: 3 days ago
Article information
Article type: Case note
Category: Patents
Topics: Support requirement
First published on this site: 2026-10-10
Display/classification checked: 2026-10-10
IP High Court, Reiwa 3 (Gyo-Ke) No. 10094 — PCSK9 (second litigation) (Judge Kanno)
*It was successfully proved that the technical significance asserted by the patentee did not hold!
→ Support requirement not satisfied.
(Excerpt from the judgment, translated)
…The technical significance of the invention lies in identifying that an antibody competing with antibody 31H4 has the functional properties of an antibody that neutralizes binding between PCSK9 and the LDLR protein through the same mechanism as antibody 31H4…. In the absence of an explanation of a mechanism supporting the proposition that all such antibodies exhibit functional properties similar to antibody 31H4, it cannot be said that an “antibody that competes with antibody 31H4 for binding to PCSK9” in the claimed invention “exhibits similar functional properties” to antibody 31H4….
A person skilled in the art would have difficulty understanding that an antibody competing with antibody 31H4 is necessarily a binding-neutralizing antibody.
…The doctor expressed the opinion that “it is certainly incorrect to say that all antibodies…competing with antibody 31H4 would neutralize binding.” …For these reasons, neither Invention 1 nor Invention 5 satisfies the support requirement.
Original article (2025-09-12):
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This history records actual publication, display, and classification changes made on this site.
2026-10-10: First published the LinkedIn original on this site and set the classification, article information, and consultation link.
2026-10-10: Aligned the translation link, canonical URL and hreflang with the verified public URLs.
2026-10-10: Updated related-article links. The original article text was not changed.
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