Announcement on Judgment of Litigation (Final and Conclusive Ruling in Favor of Tateho)

July 27, 2018
Yasunori Kitano, Representative Director and President
Tateho Co., Ltd.

On November 29, 2017, in the litigation filed by Tateho Co., Ltd. (“Tateho”) against Kyowa Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (“Kyowa Chemical”) for rescindment of a trial decision (a litigation for rescindment of invalidation trial decision rendered by the Japan Patent Office; the “Litigation”), the Intellectual Property High Court accepted Tateho’s claim and rendered a judgment (the judgment in favor of Tateho) to rescind the trial decision of the Japan Patent Office that invalidates Tateho’s Patent No. 3761867 (the “Tateho Patent”).

While Kyowa Chemical had brought a final appeal and filed a petition for acceptance of its final appeal in the Supreme Court, on June 1, 2018, the Supreme Court made a decision to dismiss the final appeal by Kyowa Chemical and ruled that it would not accept the petition for acceptance of the final appeal. As a result of this, the above-mentioned judgment of the Intellectual Property High Court (the judgment in favor of Tateho) has been finalized. The Japan Patent Office will conduct an examination again regarding the Tateho Patent, but it will be bound by the final and conclusive judgment of the Intellectual Property High Court.

On May 27, 2013, Kyowa Chemical requested a patent invalidation trial for invalidation of the Tateho Patent. On August 31, 2016, the Japan Patent Office rendered a trial decision invalidating the Tateho Patent. In response to these events, on October 8, 2016, Tateho filed the Litigation against Kyowa Chemical before the Intellectual Property High Court for rescindment of the trial decision.

The Intellectual Property High Court fully accepted Tateho’s claim and rendered a judgment that there is no ground for invalidation with respect to Tateho’s patent as indicated by the Japan Patent Office. The Supreme Court has also supported this judgment. This judgment by the Intellectual Property High Court and the decision of the Supreme Court supporting such judgment mean that the both courts have confirmed the absence of any ground for invalidation regarding the Tateho Patent. The courts have rectified the wrong decision made by the Japan Patent Office. Tateho recognizes that both of these decisions made by the Intellectual Property High Court and the Supreme Court are sensible.

The Tateho Patent relates to light burned magnesium oxide used as annealing separation agent when manufacturing electromagnetic steel sheets that are used for transformers, etc. Its characteristic is that it enables the creation of excellent forsterite film on electromagnetic steel sheets by maintaining the quantities of calcium, phosphorus, boron, silicon and sulfur contained in the light burned magnesium oxide within specific ranges.

Tateho will protect the invention regarding the light burned magnesium oxide used as annealing separation agent as its patent and promote the effective use of the patent right through license and other measures, thereby actively contributing to the development of the industry related to electromagnetic steel sheets.

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