Trial and Appeal Practitioner Study Group Report 2025（Summary）is released.

The Trial and Appeal Department of the JPO holds the “Trial and Appeal Practitioner Study Group” annually, in which trial and appeal practitioners from the different positions such as IP practitioners from industries, patent attorneys, attorneys, judges (as an observer), administrative judges gather to conduct studies on trial and appeal decisions and court decisions, and the results of the studies are widely disseminated by publishing the English report. 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.

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

The English translation of the summary of the reports is available at Trial and Appeal Practitioner Study Group Report | Japan Patent Office (jpo.go.jp).

[Last updated 19 March 2026]