اليابان

Date of Judgment: July 19, 1988

Issuing Authority: Supreme Court

Level of the Issuing Authority: Final Instance

Type of Procedure: Judicial (Civil)

Subject Matter: Unfair Competition Prevention

Summary of the judgment (decision):

1. The timing at which indications, such as a name, trade name, and trademark, for distinguishing a person's own goods should acquire well knownness as stipulated in Article 1, paragraph (1), item (i) of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act is, in relation to a claim for injunction against the act of creating confusion with the agent of goods as stipulated in the same item, the time of conclusion of oral arguments during the fact-finding proceedings in a lawsuit involving a demand for injunction, and, in relation to a claim for compensation for damages for the above act, the time when the act, which is the subject of a claim for compensation for damages, took place.

2. In the case where the scope of claims for utility model registration is amended after a third party learns of the content of a device pertaining to a published application for utility model registration, if the amendment restricts the scope of claims for utility model registration, and if the article worked by the third party belongs to the technical scope of the device throughout the period before and after the amendment, in order for the applicant for utility model registration to demand against the third party for payment of compensation as stipulated in Article 13-3, paragraph (1) of the Utility Model Act, it is not necessary for the third party to learn of the content of the amended scope of claims for the utility model registration by way of repeated warnings or the like by the applicant of the utility model registration.

(This translation is provisional and subject to revision.)