Author: kazu

Episode 39 Between late May and early June, a particular book became a hot topic within the patent attorney community: *”Everything About Inventive Step for Patent Practice”* The authors are eight patent attorneys, all with backgrounds in science and engineering, and the supervisor is a lawyer with a similar science/engineering background. Although a bit late…

Episode 38 The *Palworld* lawsuit and related patent applications have been a topic of discussion. This is a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Nintendo Co., Ltd. and The Pokémon Company against Pocketpair, Inc., the developer and distributor of the game software *Palworld*. When it comes to rights infringement regarding game software, both copyright infringement and…

Episode 37 In this installment, I will explain partial designs and the determination of their similarity. Traditionally, an “article” was defined as a tangible object circulating in the marketplace; parts of an article that could not be traded independently were not treated as “articles” under the Design Act, and designs pertaining to parts of an…

Episode 36 This time, I will explain the concept of similarity in designs. Design similarity arises in two contexts: the examination stage (Article 3, Paragraph 1, Item 3 of the Design Act) and the post-registration stage (Articles 23 and 24, Paragraph 2 of the same Act). According to a Supreme Court judgment (Supreme Court Judgment,…

Episode 35 In a lawsuit filed by ZOOM Corporation, a Japanese audio equipment manufacturer, against Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Zoom Inc.) and its Japanese distributor, alleging that the logo for the online meeting system “Zoom” was similar to ZOOM’s own logo and infringed its trademark rights, the Tokyo District Court ruled…