Newsletter (No.36) August 2023

This Newsletter summarizes legal information updated in the latest one month.

Ranked "Outstanding" in Asialaw 2022/23 Rankings

*PATENT

[Patent★] “Light Source, Backlight Unit Including Light Source and Liquid Crystal Display Device” Case: The case in which the Intellectual Property High Court denied the inventive step on the grounds that it was possible to extract a coherent technical idea from multiple paragraphs in the cited reference and that the numerical limitation without data was a design matter.

Intellectual Property Hight Court Case No. 2021 (Gyo-ke) 10096, June 15, 2022 (Presiding Judge Honda)

*TRADEMARK

【Trademark Act★】A case in which the Intellectual Property High Court held that concerning the trademark consisting solely of the color red (PANTONE 18-1633TP) applied to the sole portion of women’s high-heeled shoes, the trademark cannot be said to acquire the high degree of distinctiveness required under Article 3 Paragraph 2 of the Trademark Act.

Intellectual Property High Court Decision of January 31, 2023 (Case No. 2022 [Gyo-ke] 10089―Presiding Judge Kanno)

Strengthening of Regulations on Personal Import of Counterfeit Goods
～The regulations come into effect as of October 1, 2022～

*DESIGN

Simple introduction for many cases.

Hideki Takaishi (Attorney at Law & Patent Attorney) (Publishing Manager)

Nakamura & Partners

Room No. 616, Shin-Tokyo Building, 3-3-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku,

*The content of this newsletter provides general information and is not legal advice.

*Nakamura & Partners was founded in 1914 and provides comprehensive IP-related services both domestically and internationally as an international IP law firm.