Legal Updates

【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.

【PATENT ★★】IP High Court Case No. 2018 (Gyo-ke) 10110; November 14, 2019 (Presiding Judge OTAKA)

【Trademark Act ★】A case in which the Court found that a color trademark consisting solely of orange without contours cannot be said to have acquired distinctiveness as a source indicator under Article 3, Paragraph 2 of the Trademark Act even if such a trademark has been used for a long period of time for hydraulic excavators, the designated goods of the trademark.

【PATENT ★】IP High Court Case No. 2018 (Gyo-ke) 10151; September 18, 2019 (Presiding Judge TSURUOKA)

Outline of 2020 Amendments to the Copyright Act and Act on Special Provisions for the Registration of a Computer Program Work

[Patent*] “Roll paper for packaging medicine” (Court of Second Instance) – A case in which the appellants of an infringement lawsuit other than a claimant or an intervenor of an invalidation trial who did not file a suit for revocation of the trial decision of dismissing the request for the invalidation trial are restricted from making a defense of invalidity based on the same fact and the same evidence.

【Trademark Act ★】 A case in which the Court revoked a decision of the Japan Patent Office which refused an application for registration of the mark “CORE ML” by finding that the mark “CORE ML” consisting of common characters is not similar to either of the cited trademarks “CORE” and “コア” (KO-A in English) which consist of common characters.

【PATENT ★★★】Supreme Court Case No. 2018 (Gyo-hi) 69; August 27, 2019

【PATENT ★★】IP High Court Case No. 2018 (Gyo-ke) 10036; March 19, 2019 (Presiding Judge MORI)

【PATENT ★】Japanese Evidence Collection Procedures in Patent Infringement Case