On July 29, 2022, a Japanese Internet service company published a press release that surprised IP practitioners in Japan. DWANGO INC., the appellant and the plaintiff, lost patent infringement litigation against FC2, Inc., a U.S. based content provider, and another party, (FC2), at the Tokyo district court in September, 2018. The press release announced that DWANGO won over FC2 in the appeal at the Intellectual Property High Court (IPHC), which is similar to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the United States. The IPHC determined that, while respective programs at issue in the present case were transmitted from servers outside Japan, it would be substantially unjust if liability for patent infringement could be easily avoided by locating a piece of equipment, such as a server, outside of Japan in today’s digital society.
Recent Posts
- Other Barks and Bites for Friday, January 17: Teva Files IRA Challenge Amid Second Round of Medicare Negotiations; Ninth Circuit Says Kinetic Sculptures Can Be Sufficiently ‘Fixed’ for Copyright; USPTO Publishes Inventorship FAQs for AI-Assisted Inventions
- USPTO Fee Report: Discounts Don’t Cut It for Incentivizing New Patent Participants
- Federal Circuit Splits on Whether Toddler Tub May Infringe
- CAFC Rules Patent Applications are Considered Pre-AIA Prior Art By Filing Date, Not Publication Date
- The Biden Administration Rolls the Dice on NIH Patent Licensing