Easiness to create the design
(Conclusion) The registered design is not easy to create based on prior arts. (Design right owner won.)
If a person skilled in the art can apply prior art 2 to prior art 1, the registered design can be reached.
However, as a premise that “motivation” is require to apply a prior art to another prior art even when considering easiness to create the design just like the logic to deny inventive step of a patent invention, in this judgement it was decided that there is no “motivation” to apply the lateral design type (prior art 2) to the vertical design type (prior art 1).
<Writer: Hideki Takaishi (Attorney-at-law licensed in Japan and California)>
https://www.ip.courts.go.jp/app/files/hanrei_en/806/002806.pdf
=<IP High Court> 2018 (Gyo-ke) 10181
https://www.ip.courts.go.jp/app/files/hanrei_en/473/002473.pdf