Legal Updates

【PATENT ★】IP High Court Case No. 2016 (Gyo-Ke) 10278; January 15, 2018 (Presiding Judge Takabe)

【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 “EQ” on the grounds that the mark “EQ” corresponds to a “trademark which consists solely of a very simple and common mark” set forth in Article 3, Paragraph 1, Item 5 of the Trademark Act, and it does not correspond to a “trademark which, as a result of the use of the trademark, consumers are able to recognize the goods or services as those pertaining to a business of a particular person” set forth in Article 3, Paragraph 2 of the same Act.

【Unfair Competition Prevention Act ★★】 A case in which the court found that the configuration of the plaintiff’s product is considered a well-known indication of goods or business, the configuration of the plaintiff’s product and that of the defendant’s product are similar to each other as an indication of goods or business, and the sale of the defendant’s product is likely to mislead the public as to the source of product, and held that the defendant’s act of selling its product falls under Article 2, paragraph (1), item (i) of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, and the court issued an injunction against assignment of the defendant’s product and ordered the defendant to destroy its product.

Big Data Protection under Unfair Competition Prevention Act has just started in Japan

The Copyright Act revised in 2018 will further improve the machine learning environment in Japan.

Recent Trends in Japan relating to SEPs

Fast-track examination

Amendment of practice about a preliminary notice of rejection based on the Principal Paragraph of Article 3 (1)

“Steel Pole” Case (Patent)

Recent Developments on Software-related Patents in Japan