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The claimed invention can be led to the non-inventive step from this citation even if citation includes the sentences which seem reverse to the claimed invention.
IP News
2012.01.03
IP Court Case Summary:H22 (gyoke) 10353:
On August 31, 2011, the Intellectual Property High Court (IP High Court) supported JPO board of appeal’s decision that the claimed invention is easily invented. The appellant applied for the patent related to “An optics component and a liquid crystal display device”. The claim is as follows;
“The optics component which is glued together to be able to exfoliate the surface of the optics material with protective film with 0.03μm or more of surface coarseness Ra of the exterior surface”
[Invention at issue]
1: Protective film, 2: Polariser (optics material), 3: An adhesive layer,
4: separator
Citation-1 is similar to the claimed invention, but this citation mentions “the protective film with 0.03μm or less of surface coarseness Ra”. An appellant insisted that citation-1 is reverse from the technical idea of the claimed invention, and the Board of Appeals led to the non-inventive step forcibly from citation-1.
IP High Court mentioned as follows. The optical evaluation of the optics component can be checked in the state that protective film was affixed if a range of the Ra is “0.03μm or less”. Those skilled in the art can understand that the protective film can be used even if Ra is not lower than 0.03μm when the optical evaluation of the optics component is not necessary. Therefore, the claimed invention can be led to the non-inventive step from this citation-1 (and other citations and well known technology).
As a conclusion, IP High Court supported the JPO board of appeal’s decision that rejected the inventive step.