Supreme Court, Heisei 4 (O) No. 1491 — Earth belt
Updated: 3 days ago
Article information
Article type: Case note
Category: Patents
Topics: Damages
First published on this site: 2026-10-10
Display/classification checked: 2026-10-10
Supreme Court, Heisei 4 (O) No. 1491 — Earth belt
Where a party acquired well-known status for its product indication through a series of acts contrary to accepted principles of morality, including placing “PAT,” which could be confused with a patent marking, on products and displaying the same letters in advertisements—acts falling under Articles 188 and 198 of the Patent Act and Article 1(1)(v) of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act—it cannot claim damages or publication of an apology under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act against a person using a similar product indication.
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment below (Sendai High Court, February 12, 1992), which so held.
Original article (2025-08-19):
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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 topic tags and related-article links. The original article text was not changed.
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