IP High Court Grand Panel Decision on Cross-Border Patent Infringement

On May 26, 2023, the IP High Court Grand Panel handed down a decision on an appeal of a cross-border patent infringement lawsuit. The appellant of this case, who holds a patent for a video streaming system, claimed patent infringement against the appellees, who provided video streaming services from a server in the United States to users in Japan. The Court held that, even if a server of a network system is outside of Japan, the act of producing a patented network system by transmitting programs and data from the server in the United States to the user terminal in Japan can be considered as performed in Japan, and therefore the act constitutes “producing” under the Patent Act in light of the territorial principle, and affirmed patent infringement by the appellees.