Articles on Copyright
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【Unfair Competition Prevention Act・Copyright Act★】A case in which the Intellectual Property High Court maintained the District Court’s decision, holding that although the form of the Plaintiff’s goods is recognized as indication of the Plaintiff’s goods, the form of the Plaintiff’s goods is not similar to that of Defendant’s goods; thus, manufacture and sale of the Defendant’s goods does not fall under Article 2, Paragraph 1, Item 1 or 2 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act; furthermore, the form of the Plaintiff’s goods is not recognized as a copyrighted work, and therefore manufacture and sale of the Defendant’s goods does not fall under copyright infringement.
Defendant's Goods Defendant's Goods 1 Defendant's Goods 2 Intellectual Property High Court Decision of September 25, 2024 (Case No. 10111 [Ne] 2023―Presiding Judge Shimizu) ◆Main text of the case Summary of the Judgment 1. Concerning whether the form of the Plaintiff’s goods falls under Articl… -
Outline of the Copyright Act as amended in 2023
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【Copyright Act ★】A case in which, with respect to a slide named “ミニタコ (Minitako)” which is a type of playground equipment imitating the shape of an octopus produced by the appellant (the plaintiff in the first instance) for parks, the Court denied copyrightability thereof as either artistic or architectural work.
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【Copyright Act ★】A case in which, with respect to a slide named “ミニタコ (Minitako)” which is a type of playground equipment imitating the shape of an octopus produced by the plaintiff for parks, the Court denied copyrightability thereof as either artistic or architectural work.
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【Copyright Act ★】 A case in which the Court adopted the separability theory with respect to copyrightability of applied art, and denied, based on said theory, copyrightability of a posture keeping tool.
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【Copyright★★】A case in which the Court found that with respect to a performance of a musical work by a teacher during music lessons at a music school, a business operator which runs the music school is considered as the subject entity who gives the musical performance, however, with respect to a performance of a musical work at the music school by a student, the subject entity who gives the performance of the musical work is not the business operator, but the student.
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【Copyright★★】A case in which the Court found that the plaintiff’s work titled “Message” is recognized as having copyrightability mainly in that a phone receiver of a public telephone is fixed in the state of being taken off the hook and floating in water, and bubbles are generated from the receiver, and that the defendant’s work has commonalities with the plaintiff’s work in all of the parts that contain creative expressions, and the defendant’s work is made in dependence upon the plaintiff’s work; therefore, the defendant’s work is a reproduction or adaptation of the plaintiff’s work.
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Outline of 2020 Amendments to the Copyright Act and Act on Special Provisions for the Registration of a Computer Program Work (Supplement)
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【Copyright Act ★★★】 A case in which, with respect to a tweet posted on Twitter using a photographic image which was an unauthorized copy of a photograph taken by a photographer and posted on his own website with his name displayed, the Supreme Court found that there is infringement by the user of Twitter who retweeted the tweet containing the photographic image of the photographer’s right to determine the indication of an author’s name on the grounds that as a result of retweeting the tweet the photographic image was trimmed due to system specifications of Twitter and displayed on timelines, causing the photographer’s name to disappear, and acknowledged the photographer’s demand against Twitter, Inc. for disclosure of email addresses of the user of Twitter who retweeted the tweet.
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Outline of 2020 Amendments to the Copyright Act and Act on Special Provisions for the Registration of a Computer Program Work