“Sheet Cutter”

• 1. In order to counter the defence of invalidity raised by the defendant in infringement proceedings, the patent owner is entitled to propose a correction/limitation of the patent until the last oral hearing before the fact-finding court even if for legal reasons he is barred from proposing this limitation/correction in invalidation or correction proceedings before the Japanese Patent Office.

• 2. Raising the counter-defence of correction/limitation only later (here: at the stage of final appeal) allows the court to disregard the counter-defence as late-filed even where it is based on actually pending correction proceedings before the Japanese Patent Office (Continuation of Supreme Court, 24 April 2008 – “Knife Processing Device”).