اليابان

Date of Judgment: May 29, 1984

Issuing Authority: Supreme Court

Level of the Issuing Authority: Final Instance

Type of Procedure: Judicial (Civil)

Subject Matter: Trademarks

Summary of the judgment (decision):

1.  Concerning whether or not a particular commodity label falls under "an item similar to a label representing a third party's commodity" described in Article 1, Paragraph 1, Sub-paragraph 1 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law; it is appropriate to determine as the criterion whether traders or consumers are likely to accept these two labels as similar overall in terms of impression, memory, association, and the like by external appearance, naming, or notion, in the context of the actual business.

2.  A group united for the common purpose of protecting and enhancing the function of identifying the origin of the goods, the function of guaranteeing the quality, and the customer appeal embodied by a particular commodity label or business label under a merchandising agreement on a particular commodity label or business label is included in the "third party" described in Article 1, Paragraph 1, Sub-paragraph 1 and 2 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law.

3.  "An act of causing confusion" described in Article 1, Paragraph 1, Item 1, and Item 2 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law includes the act of using a label identical or similar to the commodity label or business label belonging to the group conducting the business of merchandising the same label, thereby causing misidentification of the user thereof as belonging to the said group, but for an act of causing confusion to be established, there is no prerequisite for assuming the existence of a competing relationship between the two parties as a premise.

4.  A party whose interests in the business are likely to be undermined as described in the main body of Article 1, Paragraph 1 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law includes a party who is engaged in the business of merchandising the well-known label as the Licensor or the Licensee of the same label, and this is likely to result in the management and control of the Sublicensee, as well as indication of the origin of the goods, the function of guaranteeing the quality, and the customer appeal embodied by the same label being undermined.

(This translation is provisional and subject to revision.)