In this judicial review of DHC’s failed attempt to invalidate FujiFilm’s patent before the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Japanese Intellectual Property High Court upholds the decision of the JPO Trial and Appeal Division, finding none of the arguments advanced by DHC urging invalidation of FujiFilm’s patent persuasive. In affirming the inventive step of FujiFilm’s patent, the Court found that a website disclosure at issue in the present case did not constitute the making available to the public of all features of the invention via an electronic communication line prior to the application filing date; that even if adjustment of pH might be considered routine knowledge in the context of a skin care cosmetic it would not have been obvious to apply such knowledge to an emulsion composition in a nonpatent disclosure at issue in the present case; and it would not be proper to infer a date of distribution from a date of publication of, or a date of manufacture disclosed in, a nonpatent disclosure at issue in the present case.
- Japanese original of the decision in this case can be found at:
http://www.courts.go.jp/app/files/hanrei_jp/204/087204_hanrei.pdf - English translation of the decision in this case, as provided by the Court, can be found at:
http://www.ip.courts.go.jp/app/files/hanrei_en/217/002217.pdf - Writeup (in Japanese) of this case by Unius patent attorney Toshiyuki MITSUYOSHI can be found at http://www.unius-pa.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/26-1.pdf
The foregoing Japanese intellectual-property-related court case summary has been provided by the Japanese patent attorneys at Unius Patent Attorneys Office. A complete list (in Japanese) of all cases reviewed by Unius Patent Attorneys Office can be found at http://www.unius-pa.com/precedent.
