On June 24, 2020, the Intellectual Property High Court (hereinafter: “IP High Court”) delivered a ruling in favor of the Appellees, including Daicel Corporation (Head Office: Kita-ku, Osaka, President & CEO: Yoshimi Ogawa, hereinafter: “Daicel”) a participant in a patent infringement injunction appeal case as a Defendant Assisting Intervener.

The case was brought by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.(Plaintiff, Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Makoto Inoue, hereinafter: “Otsuka Pharmaceutical”) in the Tokyo District Court on October 20, 2017, alleging that the Defendant’s product infringes the Plaintiff’s Japanese Patent 5946489 and requesting an injunction against the Defendant’s product. Daicel has participated in the case as a Defendant Assisting Intervener since the Court of First Instance of this case, as Daicel sells its product Equol “FlavoCel EQ-5” to the Defendant, which is utilized as a raw material in the Defendant’s products.

On January 24, 2019, the Court of First Instance ruled in favor of the Defendant but Otsuka Pharmaceutical then appealed the ruling to the IP High Court. However, the appellate court ruled that the Defendant’s products including “FlavoCel EQ-5” do not fall under the technical scope of the invention and therefore the IP High Court affirmed the First instance court ruling. The appeal filed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical was thus rejected and the Defendant, including Daicel, won the case.

Daicel has long regarded intellectual property rights such as patents as crucial management resources and has closely linked intellectual property with its business and R&D activities. Furthermore, Daicel respects the intellectual property rights of third parties, protects its products with its own intellectual property rights and will take a resolute attitude in handling patent cases after closely examining the details. Daicel will continue to maintain a stable supply of products to our customers.

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