Articles on Patent

[Patent★★] A Case in which the Intellectual Property Hight Court acknowledged joint direct infringement even if some part of the method invention was worked by another entity.

[Patent★] “Vinylidene chloride system resin wrap film” Patent infringement Case: A case in which the Tokyo District Court acknowledged inventive step by denying the ease of focusing on the “parameter” when it was not known whether the physical property value was satisfied even if the composition value was satisfied. Moreover, the Tokyo District Court recognized the support requirement and found that the defendant’s products fall within the technical scope of the invention.

Amendment to Limit the Scope of the Claim During the Proceedings and Application of the Doctrine of Equivalence (International Trend in Case Law and Overview of Japanese Case Law)

【PATENT★】”LEARNING IMPLEMENT” Appeal Case: A case in which the Court found that the plaintiff’s (appellant’s) product merely produces an additional effect in addition to producing the effect of the patented invention, and acknowledged the existence of the second requirement of the doctrine of equivalents.

[Patent★★] “LINE Furufuru” Patent Infringement Case: ① A case in which the Tokyo District Court recognized the invention step on the following ground. The court denied the defendant’s logic that only the “GPS search function” should be extracted from the secondary reference and applied to the primary reference. Thus, the court recognized a hindrance to apply the “GPS search function” to the primary reference. ② A case in which the Court found that the defendant’s services which were not examined at the phase for examination on infringement were not subject to the compensation for damages; the defendant’s sales which were regarded as remotely related to the “Furufuru” function have no causal relationship, thus, were not subject to compensation for damages under Article 102, paragraph (3) of the Patent Act.

Increase in Patent Annuities And Trademark Registration Fees on April 1, 2022

【PATENT★★★】”Process for Producing L-glutamic Acid” Case: A case in which (i) patent infringement under the doctrine of equivalents is found to be constituted with respect to a process excluded from the scope of the claims by an amendment which was made in response to a notice of reasons for rejection (lack of an inventive step) (such finding follows a global trend to use a “flexible bar” approach in a flexible way) (ii) under the circumstances where an entity which made a transfer of the defendant’s product is different from an entity which made an offer for the transfer thereof, and the transfer of the defendant’s product was made outside Japan.

【PATENT★★】”FLUID FEEDING APPARATUS, …AND PROGRAM” Case: A case in which the Court denied the valid admission by the defendant with regard to whether the structure of the defendant’s product meets the constituent features of the Present Invention in the Answer submitted in the original case, and revoked the original decision which found that there are no disputes on the constituent features, finding that the structure of defendant’s product does not cause any problem to be solved by the Present Invention, and thus does not fall within the technical scope of the Present Invention (the defendant’s product does not literally satisfy the constituent features of the Present Invention).

[Patent★★] “Brunnian Link Making Device and Kit”Case: A case in which the “partial priority” under the Paris Convention was approved

[Patent★] “Cellulose Powder” Case: A case in which the court held different judgements that the enablement requirement is satisfied but the support requirement is not satisfied.