Protection of "Shop Exterior" under the Unfair Competition Prevention Law

This is a case where a Japanese company (“Komeda”) widely operating popular coffee shops petitioned for a provisional injunction against use of the exterior appearance of the other party’s coffee shop (“Masaki”) under the Unfair Competition Prevention Law. The court accepted Komeda’s petition, since use of the exterior appearance of Masaki’s coffee shop was considered likely to cause misrecognition and confusion in connection with Komeda’s business due to the overall similarity of the exterior appearance of Masaki’s coffee shop to that of Komeda’s coffee shops.