Does the protection under Article 2, paragraph (1), item (i) of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act extend to designs of dissimilar articles?

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13581
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 05070:New fields of law-related
• Research Institution: Kinjo Gakuin University (2021-2022); Waseda University (2019-2020)
• Principal Investigator: Suemune Tatsuyuki 金城学院大学, 生活環境学部, 講師 (80822254)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: Passing off / 不正競争防止法 / デザイン / パッシング・オフ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aimed to consider the possibility of extending the protection under Article 2, paragraph (1), item (i) of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act to designs of different articles as a means of regulating the exploitation of customer attractiveness. First, this study reviews the overall situation of design protection in the United Kingdom. Then, it compared the protection of the appearance of goods under the law of passing off, a common law tort, with that under Article 2, paragraph (1), item (i) of the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

Free Research Field

知的財産法

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

不正競争防止法2条1項1号による商品形態の保護においては、機能的特徴をどのように扱うべきかが問題となるが、その前提として、その形態が同一の商品に係るものであるがゆえに機能的特徴の扱いが問題となるものと考えられる。非類似の物品に対する形態に対する保護を検討することを通じて、不正競争防止法2条1項1号のもとでの保護における機能的特徴の扱いに関する議論への示唆を得ることが学術上の意義といいうる。