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IP Court Case Summary:2014(Gyo-Ke) 10132:

<Invention>

The title of the invention at issue is “Hard Vinyl Chloride-based Resin Composition for Medical Use and Hard Parts for Medical Use using the same”. Claim-1 is “The hard vinyl chloride-based resin composition for medical use comprises 100 pts.wt. of a vinyl chloride-based resin and 1-15 pts.wt. of one or more plasticizers selected from cyclohexane dicarboxylate-based plasticizers and alkylsulfonic acid-based plasticizers, and has >=35[deg.] Rockwell hardness defined by JIS K7202.”

<Identical features>

Claimed invention and Cited inventions have the identical features as follows;

“The hard vinyl chloride-based resin composition for medical use comprises 100 pts.wt. of a vinyl chloride-based resin and 1-15 pts.wt. of one or more plasticizers selected from cyclohexane dicarboxylate-based plasticizers and alkylsulfonic acid-based plasticizers.”

<Difference>

Difference between Claimed invention and Cited inventions is as follows;

• Claimed invention is hard and for medical use. On the other hand, Cited inventions are semi-hard and for the production of typically a pipe, some wires, cable coating, a floor tile, a window shade, a film, a blood bag and the medical tube. Cited documents do not indicate “hard” and “medical use”.
• Claimed invention has “>=35[deg.] Rockwell hardness defined by JIS K7202”. On the other hand, cited documents do not indicate such feature.

<JPO Board of Appeal>

JPO board of appeal restrictively understood the use of cited inventions as only the production of a pipe, some wires, cable coating, a floor tile, a window shade, a film, a blood bag and a medical tube. Then, the inventive step of claimed invention was approved.

<IP High Court>

IP High Court understood the use of cited invention widely, and explained that “the production of a pipe, some wires, cable coating, a floor tile, a window shade, a film, a blood bag and a medical tube” means only the typical use.

IP High Court also understood that the hard vinyl chloride-based resin composition was generally used for medical use, and that was the common general technical knowledge at the time of the filing of this invention.

Then, IP High Court finally reversed JPO board of appeal’s decision, and denied the inventive step of the claimed invention at issue.

<Comments>

How to understand the use of an invention is important in patent practice. It is important to carefully consider if the use written in the document means all the use of this invention or only the typical use. In addition, it is also important to consider the common general technical knowledge in order to understand the use of an invention. This decision by IP High Court teaches those matters.

http://www.ip.courts.go.jp/app/files/hanrei_jp/029/085029_hanrei.pdf