Jurisdiction

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The IP High Court hears suits against appeal/trial decisions made by JPO, as the court of first instance, and civil cases relating to intellectual property as the court of second instance, etc..

(1) Suits against appeal/trial decisions made by JPO

Suits against appeal/trial decisions made by JPO come under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tokyo High Court (Article 178(1) of the Patent Law, etc.), and are heard by the IP High Court as a special branch of the Tokyo High Court (Article 2(2) of the Law for Establishing the IP High Court ).

(2) Appeals from district courts in civil cases

Appeals from district courts in civil cases relating to patent rights, utility model rights, rights of layout-designs of integrated circuits, and rights of the authors of a program work come under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tokyo High Court (Article 6(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure), and are heard by the IP High Court (Article 2(1) of the Law for Establishing the IP High Court). In consequence, all such appeals are exclusively heard by the IP High Court.
Appeals from district courts in civil cases relating to design rights, trademark rights, copyrights (excluding rights of the authors of a program work), rights of publication, neighboring rights, breeder's rights, and those relating to infringements of business interests by acts of unfair competition come under the jurisdiction of the relevant high court among the eight high courts in Japan, depending on where the court of first instance is located. Therefore, the IP High Court, as a special branch of the Tokyo High Court hears such appeals when they come under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo High Court (Article 2(1) of the Law for Establishing the IP High Court).

(3) Other cases

The IP High Court also hears other civil cases and administrative cases under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo High Court, that need expertise on intellectual property to conduct proceedings and make judgments on the main issues (Article 2(3) of the Law for Establishing the IP High Court).

The diagram shows the jurisdiction and procedural flow for hearing suits against appeal/trial decisions made by JPO and appeals from district courts in civil cases relating to intellectual property.

Illustration:Jurisdictional chart of IP-related litigation: This chart shows the jurisdiction concerning IP-related civil cases and suits against appeal/trial decisions made by the Japan Patent Office.