News & Topics

On February 28,2012, the Intellectual Property High Court vacated a JPO Board of Appeal Decision rejecting a claim on the ground that a claim term “power demand/supply line” reads on “electricity transmission and distribution power grid” disclosed in the prior art document.  At issue in this case was an interpretation of the claim term “power demand/supply line”.  The board of appeal said in the decision that there is no technical definition for “power demand/supply line” but, according to the dictionary, “demand/supply” is defines as “demand and supply” and “line” is defined as wired electric circuit for power transmission and communication, for example, so that it could not be understood that “power demand/supply line” differs from “electricity transmission and distribution power grid” and the concept of “power demand/supply line” reads on “electricity transmission and distribution power grid”.
 
The court said that the technical meaning of “power demand/supply line” is not clear from the descriptions of claim 1 and should be construed in light of the detailed description of the application.  The specification describes that the “power demand/supply line” constitutes a power system which does not rely on the conventional power grid and connects electric power control devices equipped in respective electricity consumers so that the electricity demand/supply control devices determine shortage or excess of electricity and control electric current or voltage without using the conventional electric power system.  In conclusion, the court relied on the descriptions and determined that the “power demand/supply line” does not read on the conventional “electricity transmission and distribution power grid”.
 
http://www.courts.go.jp/hanrei/pdf/20120229163214.pdf