Similarity of design (Infringement case)
(Conclusion) Defendant’s design is Not Similar to the registered design. (Design right owner lost.)
The persons in the purchasing division of a supermarket or a department store, etc. should be regarded as consumers of such shopping baskets and therefore as observers of them.
Observers would observe a shopping basket by evaluating whether the design of the shopping basket is, from the viewpoint of their customers, aesthetically appropriate for the image of their shop.
The observers would first pay attention to the overall configuration of the basket and, in order for the user to grasp the entire configuration, it would be natural for them to look at the basket from a distance that allows them to observe the entire picture of the basket from an obliquely upward position.
<Writer: Hideki Takaishi (Attorney-at-law licensed in Japan and California)>
https://www.ip.courts.go.jp/app/files/hanrei_en/280/000280.pdf