Novelty (related to Prior designs)
Novelty should NOT be found. (Applicant lost.)
It is not reasonable to compare the publicly known design with older existing publicly known designs and to recognize essential features for the purpose of determining similarity between the prior designs and the applied design.
The judgment on similarity should be based simply on commonalities and differences between the prior designs and the applied design.
<Writer: Hideki Takaishi (Attorney-at-law licensed in Japan and California)>
https://www.ip.courts.go.jp/app/files/hanrei_en/091/000091.pdf