Chapter 2 Novelty and Inventive Step - Japan Patent Office

Part II Chapter 2 Novelty and Inventive Step
since the French patent specification that has the same content as the claimed invention was
received by the JPO Industrial Property Library prior to the filing of the application for patent of
the invention, regardless of whether or not the invention was publicly disclosed at the time of
filing the application.
(Reference: Decision by the Supreme Court, Third Petty Bench, January 29, 1963
[Showa 36 (O) 1180])
[Example 2] The microfilm should be considered as a publication distributed in a foreign
country prior to the filing of the application for the utility model since the public could refer to the
content of the film by using a display screen and obtain a copy of it.
(Reference: Decision by the Supreme Court, First Petty Bench, July 17, 1986
[Showa 61 (Gyo Tsu) 18])
(2) Determining a distributed point of time
I. A distributed point of time is estimated as follows when a publication date has been
indicated:
(i) The last day of the year when only a publication year has been indicated;
(ii) The last day of the month of the year when publication month and year have been indicated;
and
(iii) The day, month and year when publication day, month and year have been indicated.
II. A distributed point of time is estimated as follows when a publication date has not been
indicated:
(i) For foreign publications with an exact date when they were brought from abroad to Japan, the
date retrospectively estimated from the date when the publications were brought from abroad to
Japan, considering the period normally taken for shipping the publications from abroad to Japan;
(ii) For publications compiled with other materials, such as book reviews, excerpts or catalogs,
the publication date of the publication estimated from the publication dates of these materials;
(iii) For reprinted publications, the initial print date if any; and
(iv) For other publications, the date estimated or acknowledged from other possible information
source if any.
III. A distributed point of time is determined as follows when a filing date and a publication
date are the same date:
When a filing date and a publication date are the same date, a distributed point of time is
not deemed to be prior to the filing unless the filing is obviously after the publication.
(3) Inventions that have been described in publications
The expression "inventions described in publications" means inventions recognized from
the descriptions in the publications or equivalents to such descriptions in the publications.
The expression "equivalents to such descriptions" means those that persons can derive
from the descriptions based on their common general knowledge Note as of the filing.
Note: The term "common general knowledge" means obvious knowledge derived from the
general knowledge or experience of a person skilled in the art, including well-known arts or
commonly used arts.
Also, the term "well-known arts" means the arts generally known in the technical field,
such as those published in a significant number of documents and known in the field widely
enough that it is not necessary to submit any examples of the arts. The term "commonly used
3