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IP Court Case Summary of Japan: Case No. H20(Gyo-Ke)10092

IP News 2008.10.23
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On October 24, 2008, the Intellectual Property High Court upheld the decision of the Board of Appeal that the Japanese Patent Application H05-201719 should be rejected under Article 29(2) as being obvious from the prior arts cited by the Examiner. The invention is directed to “X-ray image detector”. Claim 1 includes, among other things, a limitation “an insulation layer having a thickness of three micrometers”. The specification merely says that “To minimize the parasitic capacitance, the insulation layer 13 should be three micrometers in thick, preferably five to ten micrometers in thick.” The court found that the disclosed numerical range in thickness of the insulation layer takes an advantage only for the specific embodiment and is not supported by experiment or theory. The court also found that the disclosure of the numerical range is to provide only a rough indication. In view of foregoing, the court determined that the numerical limitation falls within the range that a person skilled in the art who expects the reduction of the parasitic capacitance employs as necessary.

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