Legal Updates

【Copyright Act ★】 A case in which the Court found that, with respect to a photographic work whose subject is a pair of penguins, each one of the penguin pictures in the work can be considered to be independently copyrightable, and affirmed that acts of reproducing and transmitting publicly the respective pictures of the two penguins separately constitute infringements of copyrights of the respective penguin pictures.

【Trademark Act ★】 A case in which the Court affirmed the use of a registered trademark in Japan based on the intention of a foreign holder of the registered trademark located abroad, and revoked a decision of the Japan Patent Office which had cancelled the registered trademark by reason of non-use.

【Trademark】 Fast-track examination (Changed from February 1, 2020)

【Trademark Act ★】 A case in which the court affirmed the Japan Patent Office’s decision which dismissed a request for trial on the invalidation of a registered trademark for a three-dimensional shape of a “lamp shade”, which is the designated goods of the registered trademark, stating that the registered trademark (the “Trademark”) corresponds to a “trademark [that] consists solely of a mark indicating, in a common manner, in the case of goods, …shape” set forth in Article 3, Paragraph 1, Item 3 of the Trademark Act; however, it corresponds to a “trademark that…may be registered if, as a result of the use of the trademark, consumers are able to recognize the goods…as those pertaining to a business of a particular person” set forth in Article 3, Paragraph 2 of the same Act; and it further does not correspond to a “trademark [that] consists solely of features…that are naturally provided to goods…” set forth in Article 4, Paragraph 1, Item 18 of the same Act, nor a “trademark [that] is likely to negatively affect public policy” set forth in Article 4, Paragraph 1, Item 7 of the same Act; and therefore, the Trademark cannot be invalidated pursuant to the provision of Article 46, Paragraph1 of the same Act.

【PATENT ★★】IP High Court Case No. 2017 (Gyo-Ke) 10121; February 14, 2018 (Presiding Judge Mori)

IP High Court Case No. 2017 (Gyo-Ke) 10210; September 6, 2018 (Presiding Judge Tsuruoka)First Judgment: IP High Court Case No. 2016 (Gyo-Ke) 10005; January 18, 2017 (Presiding Judge Shidara)

【PATENT ★★】IP High Court Case No. 2017 (Ne) 10090; April 4, 2018 (Presiding Judge Takabe)

【PATENT ★】IP High Court Case No. 2017 (Gyo-Ke) 10129; May 24, 2018

【PATENT ★】IP High Court Case No. 2017 (Ne) 10033; May 24, 2018

【PATENT ★】IP High Court Case No. 2017 (Gyo-Ke) 10006, 10015; August 22, 2017