Japanese court recognizes copyrightability of industrial design for the first time – the Tripp Trapp chair case

I. A new trend?
On April 14, 2015, the Tokyo Intellectual Property High Court for the first time
recognized the copyrightability of industrial design in a case involving the
well-known highchair, Tripp Trapp. The chair was designed by Peter Opsvik and
is produced by Stokke AS. This decision was ground breaking as the Tokyo IP
High Court in effect followed the German Supreme Court’s so-called ‘birthday
train’ decision of 2013 by no longer requiring higher creative originality in order to protect applied art under copyright. NO&T represented Stokke AS and Peter Opsvik
AS in the Tokyo High Court.

下载PDF