On April 20, 2015, Chief Judge Ryuichi Shitara and two other judges of the Intellectual Property High Court participated in an international symposium entitled “Toward the Future of the Judicial System for Intellectual Property” at the Bar Associations Building in Kasumigaseki .

This international symposium was co-hosted by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, the Japan Patent Office and the Intellectual Property Lawyers Network Japan to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Intellectual Property High Court’s establishment. Judges currently in office and lawyers handling intellectual property cases in five countries—Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany—held mock trials in which they argued the same hypothetical case based upon the statutes and interpretations prevailing in their respective home countries in front of approximately 600 observers.

Participants taking part in the mock trials included Chief Judge Sharon Prost of the CAFC (United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) from the United States; Judge Richard Hacon, Presiding Judge of the IPEC (Intellectual Property Enterprise Court) from the United Kingdon; Judge Alain Girardet of Cour de cassation from France; and Judge Klaus Grabinski of Bundesgerichtshof from Germany. The Japanese panel, composed of Chief Judge Shitara and two IP High Court judges, and the foreign judges, all dressed in the official court robe of their respective home countries, took turns to recreate the actual proceedings. Lawyers acted in accordance with the procedures stipulated by their own countries’ legal code and the judges presented their judgments/legal opinions concerning the hypothetical case, whose subject was taken from Apple v. Samsung, for which judgment was rendered by the Grand Panel of the IP High Court on May 16, 2014. The issue of the case was whether or not an injunction and damages based on a standard essential patent for which FRANDs had been declared should be granted.

After the mock trials, the aforementioned judges and lawyers held a panel discussion in English. In the discussion, common recognitions on issues such as the necessity to secure a proper balance between rights and the difficulty in calculating the amount of damages were confirmed, through comparing the results reached by different countries in the mock trials. There were also introduction of the procedures particular to respective countries, and the panelists engaged in lively discussions on new legal topics.

In addition to these symposium proceedings, symposium speakers were given a tour of the IP High Court courtrooms, and the judge of the IP High Court gave a general explanation on matters such as courtroom and composition of the Grand Panel.