Recent Developments in Japanese Patent Law – Court Decisions from the Year 2018

There have been numerous decisions in the field of patent law from the Intellectual Property High Court as well as from the district courts in Tokyo and Osaka. Among these, interesting decisions are discussed here which relate to the restitution in integrum, the patentability of inventions in cases where the technicity is disputed, requirements for the wording of the claims, the inventive step requirement, prior use, damages in the cases of patent infringement, unlawful patent infringement suits and missing naming of the inventor as well as the requirement of an interested person in nullity proceedings.