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The ''Atomic Energy Generation Device Case'' (原子力エネルギー発生装置事件) is a 1969 decision of the Supreme Court of Japan concerning the patentability of a method of transformation of atomic nuclei. All members of the patent family had been granted in other countries, and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) did not find any prior art which could destroy the novelty and inventive step of claimed inventions. However, the JPO rejected the patent application as being lack of industrial safety requirements. This is the first Japanese Supreme Court case concerning patentable subject matter. ==Background== In 1940, the ''Commissariat à l'énergie atomique'' of France filed a patent application in Japan for an "Atomic Energy Generation Device". The application claimed a priority under the Paris Convention from a French patent application filed on 1 May 1939. The case was represented by Nobuchika Sugimura of Sugimura International Patent and Trademark Attorneys from the filing stage throughout the Supreme Court.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://tokkyo.hanrei.jp/hanrei/pt/5729.html )〕 The application was invalidated during World War II, but was subsequently restored pursuant to the Order Concerning Post-War Measures for the Industrial property rights of Allied Nationals 1 Article 7, Paragraph 1, Item 2. The JPO rejected the application on the ground that the invention was incomplete. The applicant then filed an interlocutory appeal in the JPO. However, the appeal was dismissed on the basis that the invention failed to meet threshold requirements in that it “could not be used in accordance with industrial safety requirements”. Consequently, the applicant filed a lawsuit against the Commissioner of the JPO in the Tokyo High Court seeking to have the appeal decision set aside.〔Tokyo High Court, 26 September 1963, Gyoushu Vol. 14 No. 9: 1532〕 The suit was consequently dismissed on the grounds that: where practical measures to prevent risks and ensure safety have not been clarified, an invention does not fulfill the threshold requirement that the industrial sector should be able to use the invention with the assurance of safety; it is not sufficient for an industrial invention to be complete in technical terms. The applicant lodged a jokoku appeal. Incidentally, the inventor of this patent application was Irène Joliot-Curie who was the eldest daughter of Madame Curie, and Irene, a party not involved in this suit, was the recipient, along with two other individuals, of a 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The invention, which incorporated the fundamental principles of the atomic reactor, was famous worldwide as the first patented “Atomic Reactor.” The right to apply for a patent for this invention had been transferred to the nation of France. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Atomic Energy Generation Device Case」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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