Trial and Appeal Practitioner Study Group Report

The Trial and Appeal Department of the JPO convenes a study group every year, called the "Trial and Appeal Practitioner Study Group." The study group is comprised of practitioners including administrative judges, employees of the intellectual property department in companies, patent attorneys and lawyers. In addition, judges of the Intellectual Property High Court and the Tokyo District Court have been participated in the study group as observers since 2016. Each year's study group deliberates on trial/appeal and court decisions in actual cases. The results of the study are consolidated into a report in Japanese, available at the JPO website (in Japanese).

The English translation of the summary of the reports is available as below.

Trial and Appeal Practitioner Study Group Report 2025 (Summary) (PDF：1,363KB)

In the fiscal year of 2025, all meetings were held face-to-face (some were hybrid meetings), and we had deep and active discussions.

At this fiscal year’s Study Group, the members discussed the following topics; as for the four patent fields (Machinery 1, Machinery 2, Chemistry, and Electricity) and the trademark field, (1) general issues (measurement methods and clarity requirement; determination of inventive step in light of common general knowledge, etc.; support requirement; interpretation and clarification of terms used in the claims; and subsequent grounds for invalidation under Trademark Act Article 4(1)(vii) (Trademark Act Article 46(1)(vi)) and (2) individual case (selected from court precedents considered important for trial and appeal practices and trial/appeal decisions subject to the court precedents) in each of five fields.

We would be grateful if you read the results of discussions by users of the Japanese trial and appeal system and find it helpful to understand the trial and appeal practices in Japan.